150w amp into a 2x12 cab. Is it safe?

[York Audio]

I recently acquired a Mesa Triple Rectifier and have been playing it through several 2x12 cabs with different speakers that normally total less than 150 watts power handling.

Researching the internet gives varying opinions on what is safe and what isn’t, so I thought I’d check here to see if anyone had information on the subject.

From what I’ve gathered, as long as I’m not cranking the amp to ungodly levels, it should be fine, but I don’t want to risk blowing speakers or damaging the amp.

@FractalAudio, you know more about amps than anyone I know, so any insight you have would be greatly appreciated. If I’m running it fairly loud, but not loud enough to keep up with a drummer, is that ok? Is there a way to measure the watts my amp is putting out at various volume levels?

 

[AxeManDan]

Wattage doesn’t destroy speakers, clipping/distorting them does. Not to be confused with amplifier clipping.

Unless you are running that amp at stupid loud volumes you will be fine.

 

[York Audio]

Wattage doesn’t destroy speakers, clipping/distorting them does. Not to be confused with amplifier clipping.

Unless you are running that amp at stupid loud volumes you will be fine.

Thanks for this. A Dual Rec’s power amp gets flubby really quickly, so the tone starts to suck before you get to a dangerous point. The Triple Rec is much tighter with more headroom, so I just wanted to be cautious while still giving the cabs some juice to break them in naturally.

 

[PBGas]

Yup..It should be fine. I run my HK Triamp MK3 in the HK 212 with V30s and all is fine at gig volumes. You just use common sense.

 

[2204JCM]

Wattage doesn’t destroy speakers, clipping/distorting them does. Not to be confused with amplifier clipping.

Unless you are running that amp at stupid loud volumes you will be fine.

Sorry, but you can blow up a speaker with a clean signal if the wattage exceeds the speaker rating.

 

[Callan]

break them in

Crank it up!!

But seriously.. Are we talking a pair of 60w speakers, or 20w?

 

[ropas2]

Clipping won't hurt cone transducers. Overheating is what kills them. What generates heat? Power. Since guitar speaker power ratings are essentially meaningless, there's no way to know exactly how much is too much until you get there, at which point you'll have to replace the speaker.

FWIW, if you're applying 10 watts continuous amplifier power to a speaker with, say, 95dB/W/M sensitivity, you'll be producing 105dBSPL 1 meter in front of the speaker. That's loud; you really don't need to drive a big amp hard at all to get really loud.