Question about wiring a 1200S cabinet and the correct total impedance.

[slavestate]

Hello there,

I have a 1200S cabinet that I have just installed a sextet of 8Ω 12" speakers in.

I managed to come up with two feasible options to wire this speaker cabinet with. However I am not too sure which would best suit the amplifier I am going to be using.

I have a Sentura II that has two speaker output jack on the rear 8Ω and 16Ω respectively.

I could either wire the cabinet to be at 5.33 ohms or 12 ohms. My question is which would better suit the Sentura II head and which speaker output jack should I use.

Would it be safe to assume I could use the 12Ω wiring into the 8Ω jack, or could the amp handle a 5.33Ω load? Which would you folks recommend?

I believe each speaker to be 50 watts if that helps any.

Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

[EdBass]

I would mismatch down in impedance rather than up; 12Ω load into the 16Ω jack, 5.33Ω load into the 8Ω jack. It's not like a transistor amp that is safer with a higher impedance load, tube output sections are the reverse. In fact Leo Fender's tube amp output jacks defaulted to a dead short (+/- 0Ω) as a safety device, which would take out a transistor amp in short order.

[slavestate]

As always, your comments have been greatly useful. I will update this post when I finish wiring it up.

Thanks Ed and take care!

[slavestate]

I just figured I would update this thread with my results. I opted to wire the cabinet with 2 sets of 3 speakers in parallel, with those 2 sets in series with each speaker at 8Ω giving me a total load of 5.34Ω.

I plugged in my Sentura II and with much luck it works fantastic. I prefer the sound of these 12" Eminence speakers over my 215S with JBL E140's in it. The 215S sounded good, don't get me wrong, but I get a bit more clarity out of the 1200S cabinet, plus some added air.

Thanks again for your comments!