Some difference of opinion on the amp wattage versus
the cab wattage. Industry standard (for combos)
will usually have the speakers handling about 50 to
100 watts more than the amp can put out. The idea
is that you will not blow your speaker (usually)
this way. I prefer (however), to have my amp about
50 to 100 watts more powerful than my speakers
because then you get the most out of them that way.
You just have to make sure that you don't turn up
your volume to 11 :)

I am not a big fan of Hartke but you won't really ever get all of the 500 watts out of a hartke and be clean. It's not just Hartke... several bass amps are rated at the max power of the amp. Many amps are actually better with the cabs that were designed for them... Like Hartke head with Hartke Cab. I use a MESA M9 Carbine and really push about only 400-500 watts on stage with it even though it is rated at 900 watts. MESA is known to under rate their gear so I know that I have pleanty of juice if I need it. There are also ways to clean up the signal and help your cab work more efficient. Your EQ may not match up correctly with how the speakers work so also check the speakers rating. Some bass speakers actually have a usable freqency that is only 64 HZ and if you are playing a 5 string or tend to EQ heavy on the low end this may be also the problem. I like my cabs to be in the 35 HZ to no more than 42 HZ for usable frequency. Also your bass could be the issue as well... I hope this helps.

I'm with Ivan - you need headroom. Some will suggest that your amp puts out as much as 2 x what the cab is rated for that way you get lots of clean volume (most amps will clip if you dime the volume)

just buy an ampeg 410 and you'll have no more problems.

Re: I Can't Believe I'm Asking This One.....
11/4/2008 4:44:13 PM
Bill Fitzmaurice (1107) wrote:
The power handling of a speaker/driver before it goes into heavy distortion has nothing to do with its power rating. It's determined by the excursion of the drivers, which as I said before average around 40% of the power rating. If you know the precise specs of the drivers and cabs you can calculate this displacement limited power precisely with speaker response software, but otherwise there is no way of knowing what it is.
The other side of this coin is that not only do you not have to worry about the amp versus speaker rating, assuming you don't run the cabs hard enough to cause the drivers to distort, but you also don't need anywhere near the speaker rating to drive the speaker to full output. Therefore as far as matching the amp and speaker ratings is concerned a 2:1 ratio either way is a good a rule of thumb as any.
............................

" a 2:1 ratio either way "

I don't know if your amp
supports a 2ohm load.

In general, you need to add
more cabs ... HOWEVER, adding
a 4ohm or 8ohm cab in parallel
with the cab you have now will
result in less than a 4ohm load.