Ibanez JEM Forum banner

Eminence speakers?

Tags
eminence
2K views 16 replies 6 participants last post by  jono 
#1 ·
Anyone used Eminence speakers lately? Particularly the "Texas Heat" 12"?

Looking for a good 12" speaker for an interesting old 1x12 cabinet... something versatile that will be good for blues, jazz, rock, and metal. I looked at Celestions and various other speakers and after reading reviews on the Eminence Texas Heat it sounded like it may fit my needs... but welcome to any other advice.

It will be hooked up to my little Blackstar HT5, but it would be nice to be able to use it with my bigger amp head too. Would the HT5 sound ok pushing a speaker rated at 100w plus? The amps will run 16 or 8 ohm speakers, what would you use for a 1x12 cabinet?
 
#3 ·
Thanks LP... Is the Vintage 30 pretty versatile? Isn't it pretty much a hard rock speaker and very heavy on the mid-range? I've heard that some people love em and some not so much. I guess everything is that way to some degree though. Thanks for the info...
 
#5 ·
Thanks! Thats about 95% of what I play... with the exception of some light jazz and old country rock. I found a like new V30 for sale locally I might inquire about... if I can drum up a few extra $$. I have a bizarre old 1x12 P.A. cabinet I forgot about that might work great with the HT5.
 
#6 ·
Just remember that you are going to need to break the speaker in for it to sound it's best. I ran a loop of guitar playing on my Hardwire DL-8 through my amp at full volume for several hours to help with it! Covered the speaker cabinet with a couple of huge blankets so it didn't drive the neighbours nuts! :lol:
 
#8 ·
I've read that about speakers before... but never bought a new one so I never had to worry about break in. I always worried more about it being trashed. I'm still on the fence about the V30 or the Texas Heat. Wish I could buy one of each and load them in my 2x12 cabinet.

I'll be your neighbors loved you for blasting it for hours!:wink:
 
#7 ·
A speaker's rated wattage is a maximum value. It is literally the most energy you can pump into the voice coil before it melts and breaks. It is completely irrelevant to ANY discussion of sound quality or even amp compatibility UNLESS you intend to use it with an amp that can output a wattage figure higher than that value. Even then, you will be perfectly safe to use it in that situation, providing you don't actually ask the amp to provide power in excess of that value. So for example, if you have a 100watt speaker and a 200 Watt amp, yes, you CAN blow the speaker with it, but unless you turn the amp up to that level, you still wont.

Far more worthwhile a spec is speaker sensitivity. This is what determines how loud your speaker will go when fed a certain wattage. Most guitar speakers are very sensitive and will provide in excess of 95DbA when fed with a single watt of power. For context, 100DbA is the legal working noise limit I the UK, and working in environments that exceed that level requires ear protection be provided.

Resistance is a different topic, but ultimately on a 1x12" just match them up and you'll be fine. More complex rules come into play if you intend to use cabinets with multiple speakers in series or parallel.

As for running the speaker in - this is a very hotly contested topic and I'm inclined to believe neither main camp is correct. It is possible to break a new speaker by running it too loud from new. This is because the suspension of the speaker is stiff and therefore the cone is more difficult to move. A voice coil being fed current but being restricted from moving, will dissipate the extra energy as heat, and melt itself.

That said, the suspension of a speaker is the only part designed to move during operation and should become flexible with very little time. After that, the idea the sound will change is dependent on some very suspect ideas about vibration permeating through the cone structure. Any running in time over about 30 minutes is likely to be more placebo than actual settling down of the sound. Concern yourself more with gradually ramping up the volume until you hit the level you intent to use most frequently and then just play as normal.

Lastly, the idea of "being able to drive" a speaker is a fuzzy one. As mentioned when I spoke on efficiency, most loudspeakers used in guitar amps will run very loud with very little power. The idea that a speaker needs to be properly driven comes from the fact they're a complex system dealing with complex sound.

The efficiency is rated at 1watt and a 1khz signal. Thing is, a speaker can be more or less efficient at different frequencies, even presenting different resistance loads to the amplifier outputs. When a speaker is being "driven properly", what is meant is that the amplifier is capable of meeting the demand for current at any of the frequencies required.

This IS a function of the amplifier's power output, but ultimately, if the speaker needs a max of 10watts output to drive all frequencies and combinations of frequencies equally well at a given volume, using a 20 or 30 watt amp that is otherwise the same won't affect the sound one bit. All it will mean is you'll have more headroom to go further up in absolute volume. You will NOT, repeat NOT be "driving the speaker better". Just enough in this instance is all you'll ever need.

All this of course, forms the basis of why in both instrument and stereo amplifier design, you will almost never, ever need as much wattage as people tend to think. Its a fantastically poor way of judging the performance of an amp. Sadly we seem to be stuck with it as nobody but NAD amplification seem to have any interest in a more useful measurement being made standard.
 
#11 ·
A speaker's rated wattage is a maximum value. It is literally the most energy you can pump into the voice coil before it melts and breaks. It is completely irrelevant to ANY discussion of sound quality or even amp compatibility UNLESS you intend to use it with an amp that can output a wattage figure higher than that value. Even then, you will be perfectly safe to use it in that situation, providing you don't actually ask the amp to provide power in excess of that value. So for example, if you have a 100watt speaker and a 200 Watt amp, yes, you CAN blow the speaker with it, but unless you turn the amp up to that level, you still wont.
Thanks for the detailed info... I have always been more concerned with having plenty of headroom as far as power handling capability of the speaker. Trying to always err on the side of caution by way overrating the speaker. Like using 200w speakers with a 100w amp. I was just unsure of how it would be pushing a 150w Texas Heat speaker with a "5w" amp. As long as the sound quality is not affected I am good to go... that way I can use my Carvin x100 head with it too, if I ever need more power.

As an electronics guy and audio nut I have a pretty good grasp on the theoretical aspects of equipment and ratings... it's the immeasurable aspects where I usually look for advice from the more experienced people on this site. Like audio quality when using a guitar speaker at a level way under it's rated output...8)

Thanks again for all the info. I might go ahead and try the Texas Heat... and if it doesn't work well I can always add it in to my 2x12 cabinet and then try a V30 along with it.
 
#15 ·
Anyone used Eminence speakers lately? Particularly the "Texas Heat" 12"?

Looking for a good 12" speaker for an interesting old 1x12 cabinet... something versatile that will be good for blues, jazz, rock, and metal. I looked at Celestions and various other speakers and after reading reviews on the Eminence Texas Heat it sounded like it may fit my needs... but welcome to any other advice.

It will be hooked up to my little Blackstar HT5, but it would be nice to be able to use it with my bigger amp head too. Would the HT5 sound ok pushing a speaker rated at 100w plus? The amps will run 16 or 8 ohm speakers, what would you use for a 1x12 cabinet?
I play a Soldano SLO100 head, and I use Eminence V12's in my old ADA split stack 2x12 cab, as that is what Soldano uses in their cabs. I couldn't be happier with the liquid harmonic 3-D gain tone I get. Every single time I play out, I get major compliments on my tone. Could the SLO sound like this through other speakers? Probably, but I'll never try anything else.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top