Tyger16 Posted August 9, 2011 Share Posted August 9, 2011 So I've decided I want a Blackstar HT-5 because of the low wattage, making it easy to get a nice tone at low volumes. However, I also intend to use it whilst gigging. For this (due to not always having a fantastic monitor mix) I reckon I'll need a cab, so I can hear some of my guitar signal at it's source as well as my monitor mix. I play small/medium sized venues but in all cases, the stage is cramped. Therefore, to avoid my amp sound bleeding into mics and such like, it can't be too powerful a cab. I was thinking of just getting Blackstar's HTV-112 cab, which has an output of 80w. Is this too much? too little? or not the best cab at all? On a side note, ease of transportation would also be useful. IE the smaller/ligther I can get away with, the better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dominic. Posted August 9, 2011 Share Posted August 9, 2011 Rusty Phil knows about Blackstar's and stuff, when's he gonna come back getting an external cab for a HT 5 (especially one rated for 80w) is fairly pointless, as it's not going to be that much "louder", and if you are getting a monitor mix, then whats the problem?Using a 5 watt amp for gigging medium sized venues isnt really advisable anyway especially in the event that the venue dont mic up the amps. I'm so clever Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james90 Posted August 9, 2011 Share Posted August 9, 2011 So I've decided I want a Blackstar HT-5 because of the low wattage, making it easy to get a nice tone at low volumes. However, I also intend to use it whilst gigging. For this (due to not always having a fantastic monitor mix) I reckon I'll need a cab, so I can hear some of my guitar signal at it's source as well as my monitor mix. I play small/medium sized venues but in all cases, the stage is cramped. Therefore, to avoid my amp sound bleeding into mics and such like, it can't be too powerful a cab. I was thinking of just getting Blackstar's HTV-112 cab, which has an output of 80w. Is this too much? too little? or not the best cab at all? On a side note, ease of transportation would also be useful. IE the smaller/ligther I can get away with, the better. the 80 watts is just the power handling of the cab. This just means you can use any amp up to 80 watts with it (though I wouldn't recommend using an amp more than 60 watts, as they do put out more power when cranked) I'd go with the matching cab as long as it sounds good to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyger16 Posted August 9, 2011 Author Share Posted August 9, 2011 what kinda output can i expect from it then? Like volume wise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james90 Posted August 9, 2011 Share Posted August 9, 2011 what kinda output can i expect from it then? Like volume wise. Whatever the amp puts out. That's going to depend more on the amp than the speakers really. Of course there will be a bit of a difference between a 1x12 and 4x12, but if we're just talking about 1x12 cabs, then you won't really hear much of a volume difference between them Of course, there will be a tone difference if you have different speakers and even the construction of the cab, but in other words... if you took the HT-5, A/B'd it through two different 1x12 cabs, there really wouldn't be much of a volume difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don'tPostThePear Posted August 9, 2011 Share Posted August 9, 2011 According to some sources and i think i experienced this too, getting a lower rated speaker like 25-50w for your 5w amp would be better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyger16 Posted August 9, 2011 Author Share Posted August 9, 2011 so what can I do to boost the volume of my amp? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimboMansonMB-1 Posted August 9, 2011 Share Posted August 9, 2011 Get a bigger amp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyger16 Posted August 9, 2011 Author Share Posted August 9, 2011 Get a bigger amp and what would you suggest? Bigger amps that have a good sound cost a lot more money:/ And ive not got a whole lot to spend :/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomrulez Posted August 9, 2011 Share Posted August 9, 2011 so what can I do to boost the volume of my amp? Mic the amp when you play live? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyger16 Posted August 9, 2011 Author Share Posted August 9, 2011 Mic the amp when you play live? but then you rely pretty much entirely on your monitor mix and quite often whoever is doing the sound makes an arse of it. Could you not do something like run a power amp in between the head and cab? or would that mess about with the gain of the signal? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomrulez Posted August 9, 2011 Share Posted August 9, 2011 DO NOT DO THAT! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimboMansonMB-1 Posted August 9, 2011 Share Posted August 9, 2011 and what would you suggest? Bigger amps that have a good sound cost a lot more money:/ And ive not got a whole lot to spend :/ Well, if you like the sound of the Blackstar HT-5 but want a louder amp, why not look at some bigger Blackstar amps? They make them in 15w, 20w, 30w, etc, all of which will be more powerful and therefore louder than the HT-5. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyger16 Posted August 9, 2011 Author Share Posted August 9, 2011 Well, if you like the sound of the Blackstar HT-5 but want a louder amp, why not look at some bigger Blackstar amps? They make them in 15w, 20w, 30w, etc, all of which will be more powerful and therefore louder than the HT-5. I was looking at the Blackstar HT-20 but it costs £450. Seems a lot for a relatively low wattage amp. How would it be for gigging do you think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimboMansonMB-1 Posted August 9, 2011 Share Posted August 9, 2011 Not perfect, but a hell of a lot better than 5w. My AC30 is damn loud, I don't know if that's solely to the wattage, but if so, 20w should be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyger16 Posted August 9, 2011 Author Share Posted August 9, 2011 Not perfect, but a hell of a lot better than 5w. My AC30 is damn loud, I don't know if that's solely to the wattage, but if so, 20w should be fine. thanks man (: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dominic. Posted August 9, 2011 Share Posted August 9, 2011 I have a 30W amp and that's pretty loud. Although IIRC wattage is nothing to do with loudness...more to do with what volume the cleans start to break up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimboMansonMB-1 Posted August 9, 2011 Share Posted August 9, 2011 I honestly don't understand the correlation between an amp's wattage and it's volume. Because the Diezel Herbert is 180w and it's a lot quieter than my AC30 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyger16 Posted August 9, 2011 Author Share Posted August 9, 2011 I honestly don't understand the correlation between an amp's wattage and it's volume. Because the Diezel Herbert is 180w and it's a lot quieter than my AC30 I dont think anyone understands, the amount of contractions I've read about amps/cabs and how they work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyger16 Posted August 9, 2011 Author Share Posted August 9, 2011 This may seem like a nooby question but does anyone know if the effects loop in the Blackstar HT-20 is before the reverb in the signal chain? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave. Posted August 10, 2011 Share Posted August 10, 2011 I have a marshall 15w and even that can fill up a medium sized gig, but it sounds shite. why can't i have money? But If your looking at bigger blackstar amps but they're a little bit too expensive then you could try to find one used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheddatom Posted August 10, 2011 Share Posted August 10, 2011 Watts are units of energy consumption. A 100W amp will consume 100W of energy when it's run flat out. To do that you have to run it at it's minimum impedence. To take advantage of it you have to have a cab which can convert all that power into loudness. Reading some of the posts on here almost convinces me that everyone else must be using a different internet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don'tPostThePear Posted August 10, 2011 Share Posted August 10, 2011 Watts are units of energy consumption. A 100W amp will consume 100W of energy when it's run flat out. To do that you have to run it at it's minimum impedence. To take advantage of it you have to have a cab which can convert all that power into loudness. Reading some of the posts on here almost convinces me that everyone else must be using a different internet. i think no one gives half a shit about how many watts their amps are consuming, i am pretty sure that they are far from 100% efficiency (class A is way less than 50% efficient, sometimes it is just 10% "efficient" (consumes 100W, outputs 10w)) so a 100w amp will consume more than 100w. Generally when a company says that their amp have 100w of output power they mean the RMS of a sinewave with minimal distortion (like 1%) = playing clean. When you crank an amp which can output 100w sine just before it starts clipping, it can output an almost 200w square wave, so it is not that hard to blow a speaker. (if its gain is enough to make a true square wave with "proper" 90° "turns") OP can try getting a more efficient speaker, getting a speaker with 3db more sensitivity (like 98db to 101db=twice as loud) would be like getting an amplifier with 10 times more output, (like 10w to 100w=twice as loud) this is the science part of it, i wish i could try this out in the real world but i don't have a 100w amp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheddatom Posted August 10, 2011 Share Posted August 10, 2011 you are of course correct, in terms of amps they're describing output power rather than power consumption. How silly of me! Actually quite often they'll quote the peak output, instead of RMS, which is naughty as it obviously looks bigger. A more sensitive speaker with a smaller amp is often a great solution. I reckon the OP would be fine with the cab he suggested though. Most venues will mic a cab and put it through the monitors anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyger16 Posted August 11, 2011 Author Share Posted August 11, 2011 I'm looking and have decided to get the VHT special 2x12 cab. http://www.thomann.de/gb/vht_special_speakercabav_sp_212vht.htm One thing i need to know however is whether or not the speakers are wired in parallel or in series. The speakers in it (I'm told) are 16ohm speakers. When its in stereo mode, the impedence is 16 ohm per input. When its in mono mode, the impedence is 8ohm per input (its dual mono). That suggests to me that the speakers are wired in parallel because when in mono the total impedence is 8ohm with two 16ohm speakers. However I would feel safer if someone gave me confirmation haha. Also, to get maximum output from the power amp I'm buying, I need a 4ohm load. I thinking of running both channels on the power amp to the cab (putting the cab in dual mono). However, there still would only be a 8ohm load for each channel. I need a 4ohm load for each channel. Would it be safe to swap the 16ohm speakers for 8ohm ones? To me, that should equate to a 4ohm load but I really would rather know before trying it haha. Thanks for the help, I know I've had a lot of annoying questions! (: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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