Coliseum Slave: simple questions / advice.

[augment]

Hello. I was browsing around for gear tonight and came across a Coliseum Slave for $100 and figured "Why not?" and picked it up.

My questions are:

Is using it with only one (4 ohm) 2 x 15" cabinet a good/reasonable/safe idea? I have a Mesa Boogie 400+ amp, which has a dedicated "Slave Out" in the back. My manual doesn't say whether you should be using more than one cab, etc. It's rated as being an 800 watt cabinet, and the amp is a 500 watt tube amp, so it wouldn't be overpowered using the two of them, wattage-wise. But I don't want to mess up either of the amps (especially the Mesa...)

Besides that, I do have another 2 x 15" I can use, which I assume is a better set-up regardless of whether it works with one cab or not, and wanted to know if the set up should be: 400+ with a speaker output going into one cab / Slave out to the Coliseum which then runs into the second cabinet, or if both cabinets should be taking their input from the Coliseum Slave.

I appreciate any advice. I just want to make sure I have a decent idea of what I'm doing before I go trying anything at my next band practice.

[Johann]

theoretically you should be running the 400+ into one cab and the slave into another, but with a 500 watt tube amp I'd say just use the one head for both cabs and save some cables, unless you really just want to try the sunn coliseum slave.


also on the back of the 400+ I'd look for a preamp out to go to the slave, I think Mesa's Slave Outs work in a way that's different than what you would think it would be in this case, but I could be wrong as I've never had a Mesa or looked at one really. Either a preamp or the Slave Out into the sunn would work. there are like 30 different outputs on a Mesa, I'd just have one head plugged into each cab and experiment with the outputs until you got one that wouldn't bypass the power section on the mesa(I believe some do this and only activate the unit's preamp) and got the sunn to sound like you wanted. but again I'd probably just recommend using the strategy 400+ as that's more than enough power for everything to run and then some

[JoeArthur]

400+ with a speaker output going into one cab / Slave out to the Coliseum which then runs into the second cabinet

This is correct. If you run the tube amp without a load (i.e. cab) then you may wind up replacing the output transformer.

[augment]

Thanks for the answsers/advice. Yeah, my amp is probably powerful enough to get by powering two cabinets on its own, so I just want to play around with the Sunn to see how it sounds. I figure it might kick things up a notch or two when it comes to running two cabinets.

My drummer already hates me just after seeing that I had a second amp and cabinet set up... 

[jasunn O)))]

Question, I recently picked up a Coliseum slave and am having a little bit of trouble with it.

About a month ago, my father and I modified my old Ampeg 8x10 with the single input into a stereo cab with two inputs. For a while I was running my Ampeg B25-b into the top half, and my Sunn 200s into the bottom.

I set everything up the same with the Ampeg and my coliseum slave, and it just seemed to be taking power away from the Ampeg, as opposed to giving off power of it's own.

[djc]

my amp is probably powerful enough to GET BY powering two cabinets on its own

"My drummer already hates me"

No Doubt your drummer hates you!
as probably your sound man and anyone sitting within 50 rows of your rig!

[JoeArthur]

Question, I recently picked up a Coliseum slave and am having a little bit of trouble with it.

About a month ago, my father and I modified my old Ampeg 8x10 with the single input into a stereo cab with two inputs. For a while I was running my Ampeg B25-b into the top half, and my Sunn 200s into the bottom.

I set everything up the same with the Ampeg and my coliseum slave, and it just seemed to be taking power away from the Ampeg, as opposed to giving off power of it's own.

You might want to explain a little more how the ampeg 8x10 is set up and what amp is feeding what impedance load.

[George Snyder]

Question, I recently picked up a Coliseum slave and am having a little bit of trouble with it.

About a month ago, my father and I modified my old Ampeg 8x10 with the single input into a stereo cab with two inputs. For a while I was running my Ampeg B25-b into the top half, and my Sunn 200s into the bottom.

I set everything up the same with the Ampeg and my coliseum slave, and it just seemed to be taking power away from the Ampeg, as opposed to giving off power of it's own.

I would guess that your amps are out of phase. When you wired the cab did you completely isolate the two sets of speakers? If so then you can safely reverse the hot and ground connections to the slave. If it is a phase problem this will fix it.

George

[mckinnon audio]

   Hi there,if your Sunn 200S cab. has JBL's in it,they will be out of phase with just about every other spkr. out there,good luck,Mel.

[TheBassAce]

I'd like to use my Sunn Coliseum Slave in conjunction with my 1969 Ampeg SBT (NOT SVT!) head. Is this configuration workable? The SBT is a very rare standalone 'preamp only' head that was made in 1969. The preamp section was the standalone, and the power sections were housed in the 2 speaker enclosures. Ampeg specs the SBT at 240 watts RMS and 600 watts Peak Music Power. Would this configuration be enough to drive my 2 B25B cabs? There are 2 'EXT. AMP.' jacks on the back of the SBT, along with two, two-prong plugs marked 'POWER AMP. OUTLETS' and one two-prong plug marked 'A.C. OUTLET - 300 (it may be 500, I can't make it out clearly) WATTS MAX'. Each cab is loaded with 2 15" Altec-Lansing 421A drivers, rated at 150 watts each. I'm brand new to the idea of slaving, and I don't want to blow up my vintage gear! Talk to me, people!

[mckinnon audio]

  Hi there,I believe the Sunn Coliseum puts out 300 wrms @ 2 ohms.If each of your 15's is 8 ohms,you'll have a 2 ohm load with 2 cabs. hooked up,appox. 75 wrms/spkr. when the amp is maxed out,should sound great !! Good luck Mel.

[TheBassAce]

  Hi there,I believe the Sunn Coliseum puts out 300 wrms @ 2 ohms.If each of your 15's is 8 ohms,you'll have a 2 ohm load with 2 cabs. hooked up,appox. 75 wrms/spkr. when the amp is maxed out,should sound great !! Good luck Mel.

Hello and thank you for your quick reply!

You are correct about the Coliseum Slave's wattage output. All 4 of my 15s are, indeed, 8-ohm. Thank you for clarifying all this for me! I'm still a little apprehensive about doing this, but at least now know I won't fry my gear!

TBA

[TheBassAce]

Alright. I have my Coliseum Slave. I also received a diagram of how the previous owner ran it, and I have questions. He ran 2 Ampeg V4s thru the Coliseum, and outputted 6, 4x12, V4 cabs. I initially said I was going to run my Ampeg SBT because it was a preamp only unit. However, the V4 is the 100-watt all-inclusive power and preamp package. I am now wondering if I, indeed, can run my SVT thru the Colliseum. Can I still do this, and not blow up my vintage SVT?

[mckinnon audio]

  Hi there,you can take the pre-amp out of the SVT and run it into the input of the slave amp,but you'll still have to load down the power amp in the SVT with either a spkr. or a dummy load,hope this is of some help,Mel.