Question about ohms and attenuators. idk if right board?

[LTE]

I dont know if this is the right board, there wasnt like a general "amp tech" board.

Anyway, i have DC5 combo that i run with a weber mass attenuator. The speaker is 8ohm so naturally i have the weber set on 8 ohm. I jammed at a friends last night and now im setting my rig back up again and i just feel curious. Would it be bad to set the weber to 4,2 or 16 ohms (those are the other settings) and still run it normally with my amp?

Im not an expert when it comes to ohms, etc, so i dont know if it would cause any damage to my amp.

 

[fredm]

Hi there, I have a THD Hotplate. The instructions with it say that you should set your attenuator to the same impedance as your speaker otherwise you can seriously damage your amplifier.
So for me it is 8 ohms because I have an (5:25 combo) 8 ohm speaker. Does your attenuator have two speaker outputs? If so, you can run your attenuator at 8 ohms if it's going into two 16 ohm speaker cabinets. Also you can run it at 4 ohms if it is going into two 8 ohm cabinets.

Basically, if you are running two speaker cabs, they should both have the "same" impedance and the total should add up to "double" the impedance of the attenuator.

Maybe get a second opinion but I believe the above to be correct.

 

[LTE]

Its a 1X12 combo, so only one 8 ohm speaker.

And since there any shred of chance to damage my amp i wont do it, thank you.

 

[Areola]

You can safely mismatch by 2. So an 8ohm cab can actually run through 4ohm and 16ohm outs. or... 16ohm cabs can run from 8 or 32ohm outputs. I highly doubt there'd be any difference when you put an attenuator into the mix, but the point of the attenuator is to reduce the volume, which is the same reason for mis-matching ohms.

 

[tom241]

does the ohms change the sound at all?
iv always wondered

 

[Areola]

Only if you mis-match the cab

 

[Areola]

Oh.. the only way to test out if it does is if you crack open your cab and rewire it. I wouldn't alter anything worth 4 weeks pay, even something as simple as a Recto cab. (which is $2300 in australia)