Author Topic: Speaker mixing in bass cabinets...your thoughts?  (Read 5472 times)

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Offline MikeL

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Speaker mixing in bass cabinets...your thoughts?
« on: October 03, 2011, 05:44:46 pm »
A trendy thing lately for guitarists is to either mix up different models of the same brand, or mix brands altogether in a 2x12 or 4x12 cab(I'm not going to go into mixing speaker sizes). In the 4x12 context, the most popular arrangement is X-cross, although there is much to be said for a pair of high-endish speakers on top with darker, chunky drivers on the bottom. Obviously, with the wide variety of Celestion and Eminence(especially in the last decade)there's a lot to be said for pairing speakers where each does something tonally that the other does not. Mixing brands might get a bit dodgy, depending on wattage, sensitivity, and other factors like phase cancellation(a subject that I wish I knew more about). Also, in all of these contexts, ohm rating would be uniform, of course. Bass guitar amplification is whole 'nuther beast. If I were to take a 215s or Sorado cab(I realize that the 200s cab, due to the angled horn design, can only accommodate JBL D140's or D130's)and loaded, for instance an EV15L on top and a 15B on the bottom, would there be any problems? How about an EV and a JBL? Or mix/match with an Altec 421? Even with a 200s, a D130 on top with a D140 on the bottom? Then there are all the Eminence Kappas and Deltas, not to mention the Warehouse 15(which I believe is a bit of an EV knock-off). Anybody been throught the trial and error? :? Thanks...   

Offline bigobassman

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Re: Speaker mixing in bass cabinets...your thoughts?
« Reply #1 on: October 03, 2011, 08:23:44 pm »
Although most comments I've seen are against doing this, I tried it with an '82 Peavey 2-15 bass cab last year.  Although they were all Peavey Black Widows, the 4 of them were of different vintages  and therefore were of different specs.  I found a great sound with an 80s BW on top with a fairly new BW on bottom.  Made an excellent  sound with a bit more upper bass on the older BW and a good deal more on bottom with the newer BW.  I personally think a guitar cab, particularly a 4-12, could get an interesting combo with 2 alike on top and 2 alike on bottom.  Just my opinion.  Just keep in mind that you'll need to make sure that the speaker(s) are a correct "fit" for your cab.   8-)
"You can't have too much bass."

Offline Isaac

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Re: Speaker mixing in bass cabinets...your thoughts?
« Reply #2 on: October 03, 2011, 11:21:27 pm »
I'm not a fan of mixing drivers in a bass speaker, especially if they are in the same internal air space. It's not a particularly big issue for guitarists, but can be a problem for bass frequencies. Ultimately, any time the drivers are in close proximity, you end up with a particular frequency response. Better, in my opinion, to find drivers and cabinets that will give you what you want without the guesswork and luck involved in mixing drivers and hoping that the result will work well.
Isaac

Offline mckinnon audio

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Re: Speaker mixing in bass cabinets...your thoughts?
« Reply #3 on: October 04, 2011, 07:17:42 am »
   Hi there,if you plan on using JBL's with any other speaker on the planet,you'll have to wire the JBL's reverse polarity to the others,or else they will be out of phase.Put your positive wire to the black terminal and the negative to the red terminal of the JBL and it will work.Good luck,Mel.

Offline EdBass

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Re: Speaker mixing in bass cabinets...your thoughts?
« Reply #4 on: October 04, 2011, 08:06:25 am »
As long as you aren't mixing impedances and everything is in phase you probably won't physically hurt anything, however I doubt you would get any advantage tonally.
As Isaac says it's probably not the best idea to share cabinets with different bass drivers with different excursions, response curves, etc., unless you are intentionally trying to cause distortion. I think that's why guitarists will "mix 'n match" drivers (or tubes even), to get an unique type of harmonic distortion.
Guitarists seem to use distortion as a regular tool, while bass players not so much. Of course there are examples of the opposite for both.
It can't hurt to give it a try, as Mel says don't forget the reverse terminals on the old JBL's.

Mike, picture a nice clean sine wave. Now picture adding another clean sine wave to that mental picture, same amplitude, same frequency but reversed; when the first sine wave is peaking at the top the second one is simultaneously peaking on the bottom.
That very simplistically put is phase cancellation, the two sine waves effectively cancel each other out and the result is no sound.
That's total cancellation, which doesn't happen much, unless you were to forget Mel's advice about the backwards JBL's.  :-D
There are varying degrees of phasing misalignment (using the basic principles of my total cancellation example) that can attenuate or boost a signal to plague (or benefit; like with a flanger or phase shifter) the player.

Offline Isaac

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Re: Speaker mixing in bass cabinets...your thoughts?
« Reply #5 on: October 04, 2011, 10:38:31 am »
   Hi there,if you plan on using JBL's with any other speaker on the planet,you'll have to wire the JBL's reverse polarity to the others,or else they will be out of phase.Put your positive wire to the black terminal and the negative to the red terminal of the JBL and it will work.Good luck,Mel.
Not necessarily. JBL changed their polarity convention some time back, to agree with other manufacturers, so it depends on how old the JBL is. Have to check it. A person could look it up, but it's easier to just put a battery on the terminals and see which way the cones move.
Isaac