Grateful Dead Music Forum

Howdy. So my brother is going to build me a 2 x 12 speaker cab. I would like the option of running one speaker for certain situations and both speakers for other situations. Im not entirely sure but I think I could run them individually out of my mosvalve, (this is all new to me) but then im dealing with tweaking both channels. Big deal? Maybe maybe not. Idk. Or, his suggestion was to simply add a switch to shut one of the speakers off when I wanted to. And secondly should I have him add a baffle between the two speakers that can be removed accordingly? Any thoughts or opinions would be greatly appreciated.

I don't think you really need a baffle. You can have two separate jacks, one for each speaker, and run the amp stereo, there wouldn't be much need to tweak anything, just keep the two volume levels the same. Plus it would give you the opportunity to run effects in stereo if you wanted. Having both wired in series or parallel but turning one speaker off would change the load on the amp so you probably don't want to do that. Others can comment, I'm sure.

Not sure what the benefit would be vs. just running both all the time and turning the power amp down, though?

I run my MC250 in stereo into a 2x12 cab and love it. The bottom speaker has a bit more bass resonance being closer to the floor than the top speaker. This little difference allows me to “acoustically tune” the cab and what is coming out of the speakers so to speak. And when I want to be a little quieter I just turn one side down.

Thanks for the input. Im putting two Beyma Libertys into it which are supposed to be the equivalent to the E-120. From what Ive read on here over the years the E-120 had to be pushed hard to get into the "zone". That's why I assumed that in a lot of situations that I play in, running both of them would be too much. Maybe Im confused though. Again, these are new waters for me.

I used to have a custom Earcandy 2x12 cab that could be run in stereo or with one or two speakers in mono. I had it loaded with JBL K120s. Sounded great, but a bit heavy to schlepp around. Then I had a local guy build me two matching 1x12 cabs and put one of the K120s in each. This gives me the same options as the 2x12 did, plus not only does it lighten my load, but in situations that call for only one speaker, I only have to bring one. I'd hate to have to carry a 2x12 if I were only using one of its speakers.

Bill, tgo

I have a 2x12 cab that I no longer use because my1x12 with a K120 is all I’ll ever need playing in small to medium rooms. If the room is larger, the cab gets mic’ed. I use an MC50 to power the 4ohm K120, using the 16 ohm tap.

Maybe get two 1x12’s? Best of both worlds. There’s something 3d’ish when playing through two speakers. Maybe it’s moving more air but to me sounds more interesting. I have both, 2x12 and 1x12 but I only play in da cave for now so all I use is the 2x12.

Thanks very much. I truly appreciate all the suggestions. It would seem running both in stereo makes the most sense for what Im trying to accomplish. I understand what in series and parallel wiring is but does either one make a difference or does it even come into play when running two speakers in stereo?

If you are running two speakers in stereo, each speaker is connected to a separate channel. They are not wired together, either in parallel or in series.

Bill, tgo

Stereo mode: you will need to split the output of the FYD (unless it has two outputs already) I think a Y splitter will work but You may know of other options. You need this cause if only one input is used into the 960, it will then be internally bridged for mono output. Once you have two output signals from the fyd going into the two inputs of the 960, it will now be in stereo mode, 80 watts per channel.
The two outputs of the 960 go to each of the Beyma speakers and now each volume will control each speaker.

http://www.genzbenz.com/img/manuals/tw/ ... Manual.pdf