Stereo and bass signal into bass speaker cabinets

Hi,

I would like to find a way to play both my stereo and bass guitar through a pair two 4x10" bass guitar speaker cabinets. Since the cabinets have two sets of input jacks (1/4" and Speakon) I was wondering if I am able to feed the bass signal coming from a mono bass amp (700W @ 8 ohms) to each of the two cabs and use the remaining 1/4" jacks to receive from the stereo (60W per channel @ 8 ohms). Even without an electronics background this does not sound good (60W up against 700W or impedance issues for the amps or the cross-wiring of signals from separate sources meeting at the speaker input jacks).

The other solution I can see is to sum first the left and right signals of the stereo, reduce its strength and further mix this with the bass signal from the guitar and then into the input jack on the front of the bass amp. It would be nice to keep the stereo as stereo but since the bass amp is mono this could not be avoided under this scenario.

Thanks for the help, Steve.

Reply to
steverossiter
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Forget the first method. You would have to get two big amps for the stereo and bass method. I just invisioned back in the early 70's playing stereo through two 4-12 Ampeg sets. Used to shake your pants.

greg

Reply to
GregS

What is inside the cabinet? Normally these are set up as two 8-ohm speakers in parallel, connected in series with two more 8-ohm speakers in parallel. This allows it to present an 8-ohm load to the amp.

Therefore, you can safely plug one channel from your stereo receiver into the bass cabinet. Set the switch on the receiver to MONO and just use that channel.

The power ratings for speakers are basically bogus. Pay attention to the impedances.

The problem that you will encounter is that your stereo will sound really terrible going into a bass cabinet. You won't even be able to make out the words of most songs.

The bass _cabinet_ is mono, you won't get any stereo output from it.

Here, though, it sounds like you want to run your stereo and the bass amp into the same cabinet _at the same time_. That's a lot harder to do. It's possible to do it but you're going to need a different kind of amplifier than you have for either your stereo or the bass guitar, and you're going to need to sum the line-level signals from the stereo and the guitar together.

But FIRST, just plug one channel of the amp into the bass cabinet to hear what it sounds like running full-bandwidth audio into an instrument cabinet. That will probably discourage you from going any farther.

--scott

--
"C\'est un Nagra.  C\'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
Reply to
Scott Dorsey

don't do this.

Set full range speakers on top of the bass cabs. Play stereo and guitar and have fun.

Reply to
Tim Perry

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