Speaker wattage & recommendations for 5 watt amp?

revolver · Post by **revolver** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 11:46 am

I've recently acquired a nice little hand wired 5 watt head based on a Fender Champ. I'm building a cabinet for it but can't decide on whether to go 8" or 10" speaker.

Also, what wattage should I be looking for? Is a 30 watt speaker too high? I can't seem to find a 10" speaker in a lower wattage.

sharkboy · Post by **sharkboy** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 2:30 pm

You probably don't want anything under ten, and luckily will likely have a tough time finding a modern guitar speaker at that rating.

It will take longer to fully break in a speaker of much higher wattage, but the power rating is less important to the sound of the speaker than the sonority of the actual speaker in question.

What I mean is that if you like the sound of an Alnico Gold, just finding a speaker with a lower rating may be too dark for your tastes, etc.

Some people believe that "speaker breakup" is a positive characteristic of pushing a speaker. I am not one of them. I do like the sound of a good speaker driven hard enough to "open up," but I apologize that this is a fairly nebulous term, as some of the good sound out of playing loud has more to do with the perception of sound in the ear than the physics of the speaker.

FYI: I know Weber has some that have lower ratings than 30W in 10" and 12" sizes.

doctorwho · Post by **doctorwho** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 7:21 pm

I'm not one of the resident experts, but I looked on The Fender Amp Filed Guide webpage and found that the Champ was rated at six watts amd used an 8" speaker. A similar speaker (4 ohm) can be found at Angela Instruments:

http://www.angela.com/catalog/speakers/guitar.html

doctorwho · Post by **doctorwho** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 11:06 pm

... ummm ... that's the Field Guide ...

ken_j · Post by **ken_j** » Sat Jan 13, 2007 4:08 am

I think that the efficiency rating would be equally as important.

ozover50 · Post by **ozover50** » Sat Jan 13, 2007 9:18 am

Absolutely, Ken. For this kind of amp I believe you would need a speaker with the highest possible sensitivity (90db per watt per metre or higher IMO) and you should match the speaker impedence with the amp's output impedence. A 2 or 4 ohm speaker connected to an 8 ohm amp may spell disaster for the amp. A lot depends on the amp but believe me, it can happen!

doctorwho · Post by **doctorwho** » Sat Jan 13, 2007 10:37 am

Good point Aitch, it isn't recommended running a lower-impedence speaker system on any tube amp.

revolver · Post by **revolver** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 9:00 am

Luckily I'm able to switch the impedance on this amp. I still haven't decided what make yet. My quest continues...

doctorwho · Post by **doctorwho** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 6:16 pm

Dane, I have a D110F orange label JBL speaker, 8 ohm, that I am planning on putting on eBay. Let me know whether you'd be interested.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 7:45 pm

I'd put a low wattage speaker in it, the size depends on the sound you want. Champs sound kind of tinny for guitar, the 6 watt rating, the 8 inch speaker and especially being open backed all cause this.

doctorwho · Post by **doctorwho** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 7:14 am

Dave, sorry for calling you Dane!

jnbass · Post by **jnbass** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 7:52 am

D110F?

Do it!