Speaker swap advice

mark_jwedge

I have an 50w Top Hat Emplexador plexi style amp which I run through a 2x12 with a V30 and a G12H 70th Anniversary at 8ohms.

The set up sounds great but you have to wind the amp up a little bit to get the best from it. Before lockdown stage volumes where creeping lower and lower. 

I don’t want to attenuate the amp and I want to keep the gear I take to gigs to as little as possible but I was wondering if a swap to some lower sensitivity speakers would just take a bit off the volume and give me a bit more of a usable range on the master at gigs. I was thinking maybe 2xGreenbacks - which tone wise would still match a Marshall style amp - with the added bonus of the 2 M magnets taking a little bit of weight away too???

Any thoughts / advice?

ICBM

Yes, that would do it - it's pushing it for power rating if you're going to crank the amp up though. If that's likely to be a problem the G12M-65 Creamback is like a slightly darker/tighter Greenback with plenty of power handling. And 1dB less sensitive, apparently - I have to say I would have thought they were the same.

Or you could try Neo Creambacks - they're also a dB less sensitive than Greenbacks and 60W each, as well as much lighter. I haven't tried them yet myself but from clips they sound to be quite similar to the G12M-65, maybe a little closer to the G12H-75 which also sounds great with Marshall-type amps.


Or you could use Rocket 50s if you want to kill the volume and tone completely .

Winny_Pooh

The really low sensitivity speakers seem to have small magnets and these tend to have much less low end. You really are better off with attenuation. 

Modulus_Amps

The two greenbacks will sound quite different to the V30 + G12H combination, you might think it is better, maybe not. 

Point being that it may be quieter, but it won't be the same sound.

ICBM

Winny_Pooh said:

The really low sensitivity speakers seem to have small magnets and these tend to have much less low end. You really are better off with attenuation. 

It’s also far more effective. Changing speakers will only give a reduction of about 6dB at the absolute most, and even then speakers that inefficient also tend to sound weedy, as you say... more realistically 3dB for ones that sound roughly similar.

Eminence do make speakers with variable sensitivity - there’s a big knob on the back which winds out the magnet pole from the voice coil - but they also sound less good (in my opinion) as you turn them down, and they weigh a lot.

fastonebaz

Love my neo cream backs in my Marshall.

p90fool

Neo Creambacks have plenty of low end, especially if your 2x12 has a closed back and reasonable depth.