Post by daveHi. I have one of these amps and it has a 16 ohm speaker with an 8 ohm
speaker out. I was wondering if I could exchange the 16 ohm speaker with an
8 ohm without doing damage to the amp. Thanks for any help...Dave
I used to own one of these amps. I got hosed on a used purchase of one
of them, as the one I had was screwed up when I bought it and I had no
idea. Should have known better. FWIW - this was an in-person deal too,
not an ebay deal.
Mine was advertised as having a Vintage Celestion 30 in it. After I
bought it and got it home, I realized that it was an 8ohm speaker and
that that was the wrong impedance for that amp. Peavey does a piss poor
job explaining the whole impedance business with those amps, as
depending on which line in the instructions or their marketing materials
you read, they make like it can handle an 8 ohm speaker just fine. Every
tech I spoke with on this, and I posted in this NG a while back when I
still had my classic 30 this very question, said that the transformer
may suffer and that it is a bad idea. I didn't believe them, figuring
they were making too big a deal out of it. The amp never "blew up", so I
just assumed it was working fine. Though I never really liked the sound
of it when it was turned up past 3 on the volume, and it never sounded
nearly as good as the new ones that I would try in the stores from time
to time. FOr a while I considered ditching mine and buying a brand new
one, or just selling the vintage 30 speaker and getting one of the cheap
peavey speakers that come in the new ones. I figured that was the
problem with the amp- the speaker. Yes, I tried JJ tubes too (didn't
like em at all).
Eventually, I sold the amp used. Told the buyer about the speaker
impedance thing, and he said it didn't matter to him as he was a
collector and just bought tons of amps and sold ema all the time. I got
a very good price for it, more than I paid. A couple fo weeks after he
received it I emailed him asking him how he liked the amp. He emailed
back saying it's great, and thanks, etc. For whatever reason we emailed
back and forth a few times later (I think I asked him about the tubes or
something), and that's when I mentioned to me in passing that the
classic 30 I sold him was running on only 2 of the 4 power tubes, and
that the impedance of the amp was screwed up. Something about there were
a couple of open solder trace runs on the circuit board. I apologized
and asked him why he didn't say anything before, and he replied by
saying that he knew it wasn't something I knew about because it happens
all the time with the peavey classics. He said another problem was the
8ohm speaker overheating the thing.
Now, I don't know whether the amp was like that when I got it or not, or
if the "impedance was screwed up" was actually intended by the dope who
I bought it from who rigged it so that the 8ohm speaker matched the amp.
I have no idea about such things. All I know is this - I would never
mismatch a speaker in that amp. And I will most likely buy another one
(a new one as their is a shop near me selling them new for $419 - only
75 more than ebay with shipping).
FWIW - just before I sold the amp, I did buy a new speaker for it. An
Eminence Legend GB12, 50 watt greenback clone, for only $39 from Dave at
www.avatarspeakers.com - excellent price and excellent service. Since I
sold the amp before putting the speaker in, I had no use for a 16 ohm
speaker so I ebay'd it. I recommend you just get a decent speaker from
avatar that is 16ohms and be done with it.
mark
