weird (probably dumb) question about input jacks

[woody777]

If you recall from my other thread, I'm in the market for an old Mesa Boogie 2x12 with the metal grill. I found two cabs I'm interested in but they have different input jacks on the back. Here's a pic comparing the two:

I'm curious - does anyone know what the extra jacks are on the other one? And does that mean it's newer than the single jack input? If that's the case, any tone difference between the old cab and newer cab? I'm guessing no, but if anyone knows it would be you guys.

 

[Russ]

I believe the 2 jacks allowed you to send different signals to each speaker (stereo) and the third jack was for chaining cabinets. This is more of a modern trend. It just allowed for more flexibility with your tone and your cabinets. Realistically you could wire the thing however you want though. The single jack version just provided a single input to your cabinet with 4 ohms for a 2-8ohm speakers or 8 ohms for 2-16ohm speakers. In most cases it would be a pair of 8 ohm speakers giving you 4 ohms as a total load. I would put money on the fact that most older cabs were setup this way while most newer cabs had the option of having the older single input design jack or the newer multiple input and chaining designed plate. With regards to cabinet contruction I don't see why Mesa would have changed their construction specs for the cabinets.

I have one of these with a single jack. It sounds good with a pair of 8 ohm EVM's giving me 4 ohms coming out of my Mark IV.

Something else to think about is that the single jack is better if you are using a single (mono) signal because it reduces the amount of cables to have to deal with.

 

[woody777]

Thanks Russ!