200s Cab and an SVT?

[paulbystereo]

So I finally found a 200s cab (w/ JBL d140's) and got a life partner for my Sorado. I had read that the d140's handle 150 watts each (is that right?), but I wanted to make sure not to blow them up. I wondering if you guys could school me on the power handling capability of those speakers/cab and if it would be dangerous to run my Blackline SVT through it at a modest volume. Thanks in advance.

[EdBass]

I think 150 watts is a little ambitious for a D140F, I believe 75-100 watts is more accurate. That's for fresh, healthy drivers. Any D140F is at least 40 years old at this point and time takes its toll even if they haven't been beat on.
I would try the SVT if it were my cab though. Take it easy and listen to the speakers for any signs of distress. Most of the time you can hear the drivers "complaining" before they get smoked, and can prevent a failure.

But...

Be cautious; the key phrase is "most of the time"...

[paulbystereo]

Awesome. Thanks so much EdBass. I'm going to give it a run here in the next day or two and see how it sounds. Hearing it with my Sorado made me smile ear to ear, so even if it was just paired with that amp, I'd be happy.

[Isaac]

The D140 was rated at 75 watts. As Ed said, that's for a new driver. The almost identical K140 was rated at 150. Both drivers will kick out a lot of sound with a fairly small input. A 200S cabinet with two D140 drivers will put out around 100dB with a 1 watt input, around 110dB with 10 watts, and should approach 120dB with 100 watts. That should be plenty loud (approaching the pain threshold), and shouldn't be much of a risk to the drivers.

In short, yeah, I'd try it, too.

The 200S cabinet is intended to be a high fidelity cabinet, and it's essentially flat from 50Hz to 2000Hz. My impression is that this is rather different from the typical SVT cabinet, so expect a different sound.

[paulbystereo]

Thanks so much. I greatly appreciate the info guys.

[N2000s]

I'd be curious to hear it at minimum levels too but I'd not risk it for long. The SVT would really breath with a suitable cab like the 8x10. My suggestion is to use another cab for that beast...

[Soundmasterg]

I used to have a 1981 MTI era SVT that had Magnavox era transformers in it. I played that through my 2000S cabinet with D140's at lower volumes and the cabinet was fine. The SVT sounded much like it does normally, with slightly more top end, and really it sounded better through its SVT cabinet because I wasn't worried about cranking it there whereas I was through the Sunn cabinet, and any tube amp opened up will sound better when it is like that rather than barely on.

Greg

[boulderbass]

I am playing my 200S using an Alembic F2B and a Peavey IPR 3000 power amp. It is fine with a lot more than a couple hundred watts as long as you are reasonably careful. I've gotten carried away a few times and haven't managed to blow up the speakers.

I don't know about hifi. It might have been hifi for the late 60s, but there are more hifi cabinets available now. I'm also not convinced by the efficiency numbers listed above. Perhaps at 1khz that might be true but down at 100hz and below, I'm skeptical. However all that measures out, I don't really care. It sounds very nice.

[Isaac]

My impression of modern so-called hi-fi cabinets is that they are usually anything but. Instead, they are usually highly colored, with a large boost in the mid bass and upper midrange. The essence of a truly hi-fi cabinet is that it be flat through the entire range. The 200S cabinet is flat from 50-2000 Hz. It would benefit from a midrange speaker to give it another octave and to widen its polar response in the upper octaves. But it is unquestionably high fidelity through its range.