Speakers

[a1terrier]

Anyone got any suggestions for a good speaker for a little 5W valve amp. I have heard that Jensen and Celestion are good. Cab will fit an 8, 10 or 12 inch. Many Thanks.

[pdf64]

Celestion Blue is the best but it's a personal opinion.
What's your budget, how loud do you want to be, what kind of tone do you want to get, what kind of tone do you hate? Peter.

[tubeswell]

the blue is undoubtedly the penultimate - or maybe a 20W G12 greenback

Or an old Goodmans 15Wer (maybe you can find a cheap 2nd-hand one in good working order?) or any lowish powered speaker with an alnico magnet

[Bill Moore]

Weber?

I've got an old Airline that I've owned forever,(single 6V6), that has a late 60's Oxford from a Twin. I'm trying to get a blues style sound, but when you dime the little amp, it just gets loud. Asked Ted for his recommendation, Vintage Series 12A125A 20 watt, lightly doped, and well broken in by them. I haven't recieved it yet, but will be glad to let you know when I get it installed.

[a1terrier]

Thanks for replies. Dont think I can justify a blue having seen the prices. Seem to be plenty around the £60 to £80 mark which would fit the bill. Is it best to get the biggest diameter speaker possible or would a better quality 10inch sound better than a lower priced 12 inch?? As for tone I m just trying to get the best clean I can out of my Strat with a tube amp. Thanks.

[GibsonLover]

If you want a clean tone, look for one described as "late break-up". Also, efficiency improves noteably once you jump from 8" to 10". Since you have room for one speaker for an SE amp, a 10 or 12 will push more air, and more efficiently. Consider the P8R (92.5dB) and the P12N (98.5dB).
That's a 6dB difference in SPL. That translates to twice the voltage at your speaker terminals doing actual work, eeked out just by efficiency of the driver. Given the load is constant, and V^2/R = Power, the V^2 term means your power increases 4-fold. If your output stage can actually keep up, your 5W amp with an efficient speaker would be just as loud as a 20W amp with the same size speaker. Mileage may vary. (It's only about 0.4 times louder though, due to the log nature of sound.) Isn't math fun?

[Bill Moore]

I forgot to reply when I got my Weber installed, it's great. I of course was looking for early breakup, and the speaker is just what I wanted. I've been using a Blues Driver, but now can get almost the same sound with the guitar volume control, (guitar has humbuckers). I've got a long way to go before calling myself a guitar player, but I'm happy with the sound, and a little over a hundred bucks is reasonable.

[a1terrier]

Thanks again for replies. Been in touch with amp kit manufacturer who suggests a Celestion G12H, so will probably take his advice.

[a1terrier]

Thanks again for replies. Im sure Ive asked this before but cant seem to find answer on the forum. Amp kit has arrived so cracking on with build now. Going with Celestion G12H 12" speaker. Kit will take either 8 or 16 ohm speaker what is best choice and why? Sorry if Ive asked this before but need to order speaker this week. Thanks in advance.

[tubeswell]

Thanks again for replies. Im sure Ive asked this before but cant seem to find answer on the forum. Amp kit has arrived so cracking on with build now. Going with Celestion G12H 12" speaker. Kit will take either 8 or 16 ohm speaker what is best choice and why? Sorry if Ive asked this before but need to order speaker this week. Thanks in advance.

There is not really any 'best choice', but if your OT has 8R and 16R taps, then if you get a 16R speaker and if you ever want to run a 16R extn speaker as well, you can wire the Ot secondaries so that when you plug the extn speaker in, it is in parallel with the internal 16R speaker and is switched to the 8R tap on the OT. What about that?

[a1terrier]

Thanks Tubeswell. So no difference in sound etc between 8 and 16? As you can tell Im a newbie at this valve amp thing, just on with first build now so all help and advice is much appreciated. Thanks.