I never gave this much thought, considering I've always played either 4ohm heads matched with 4x10" 4ohm cabinets, or smaller combos (Hartke 500HD), but I've run into a dilemma and I'm trying to understand why I'm having this problem.
3 years back, I invested in a Darkglass Microtubes 900v2 head, (4ohms/900w) and a Darkglass 4x10 cabinet (4ohm/1000w). This setup sounds amazing, but even though the 4x10 cabinet is lightweight, I wanted to try a smaller cabinet for smaller gigs. Nearly every smaller cabinet made for amp heads is 8ohms, which I am to understand that if you're running 4 ohm head into, your output power will be less. Fine, I don't need tons of power in a small venue. So I contacted Darkglass, and specifically inquired about whether or not I could use my 900v2 head with one of their smaller 2x10 8ohm cabinets. Here was their response:
You can definitely use any of our cabinets with the M900v2 amplifier without issues.
The amplifier's power ratings are:
900W @ 2/4 Ohm of load
450W @ 8 Ohm of load
The amplifier will recognize the connected load and the power will be adjusted accordingly.
So I bought the 210N cabinet. It sounds like shit! I simply cannot get a clean sound out of it, and there have been times when the sound drastically distorts and I have to power down the head and then power up again. I do not have this problem when I run the head through the 410 cabinet.
So what the hell is going on? Even at half the wattage (450), there should be more than enough headroom going in.
