Express el34 and two 25watt Greenbacks

[Scumback Speakers]

Thanks for the detailed responses. Very good info. Im interested in why you recommend parallel for 8 ohms. I usually try for 16 ohms because of using all the winding in the transformers. Do I hear a difference? I dont know maybe.

If you had two 65w 8 ohm speakers wired in series for 16 ohms I'd say fine. But with two 16 ohm 25w speakers wired in parallel to 8 ohms, you still have one speaker putting a load on the OT if you fry a speaker. You don't get that in the series wiring. Trannies are expensive, take longer to replace.

Also, in tests I did years ago with Dave Friedman, we went through a bunch of speakers in identical cabs. We concluded that the 8 ohm tap has a little more mids than the 16 ohm tap. While the 16 ohm tap had a little more vintage feel, and a very slight amount more bass, we felt that in the 2x12 cabs that you needed more mids, and the power splitting safety when using low power speakers.

No one likes the smell of a burnt voice coil, and they sound like a kazoo if they get voice coil rub, too...so that's why I make these recommendations.

Hope that explains it for you.

[RockinRocket]

Wow, Jim you are the speaker god! That is extremely good info. If I ever need new speakers Im certainly going to look in to yours!

[Roe]

the express is a small amp (6k6 around 400v, almost like a deluxe reverb). the output is less than 50w

Im aware the amps under 50 watts (clean though, right?) But Ive also read multiple times that the express is louder than 50watt 4 hole marshalls. Why would it have less watts but louder than 4 hole marshalls?

perceived loudness is not identical to power. the marshalls uses a lot of power to boost lows, something the express does not do. and the express has a faster attack, and more gain and aggression, that makes it loud in the subjective sense of the word