Using multiple 10CR cabs

Confused about which 10CR cabs work with which other ones? You've come to the right place! Firstly, every 10CR model, from the One10 to the Eight10, T or not, uses the same Barefaced 10CR250 drivers.

(In November 2023 we launched some 10CR models which use an alternate impedance driver, the 10CRA - these are the Four10 (4 ohm), the Two10 (8 ohm) and the forthcoming Three10 (4 ohm) and Extra10 (wide landscape One10 12 ohm). 10CRA models should not be mixed with 10CR models due to unbalanced power distribution. You can use 10CRA versions of the Two10 and Four10 together, or the Three10 and Extra10 together, but don't mix between those two pairs or the power distribution will be strange).

So tonally they match very well through the mids and highs. In the lows they vary slightly but in a fairly straightforward way - as the cabs get bigger, they sound a bit bigger (deeper, fatter, etc)!

This means that the cabs all match up very nicely when connected to the amp so that each speaker gets equal power. So here's a list of some pairings which get you that result (you can swap in the "T" tweetered versions without anything changing) by simply conected the cabs direct to your amp and/or daisy-chaining (all parallel connections):

First cab	Second cab	Total impedance
One10	One10	4 ohm
One10	Two10S @ 4 ohm	2.7 ohm
Two10S @ 12 ohm	Two10S @ 12 ohm	8 ohm
Two10S @ 4 ohm	Two10S @ 4 ohm	2 ohm
Two10S @ 12 ohm	Four10 (8 ohm)	4 ohm
Two10S @ 12 ohm	Six10	4 ohm
Two10S @ 12 ohm	Eight10	2.7 ohm
Four10 (8 ohm)	Four10 (8 ohm)	4 ohm
Four10 (8 ohm)	Six10	2.7 ohm

 

There are some other rigs that will work well but only by making up a series loop cable - a normal (parallel) cable connects the positive terminals on amp and cab with one wire and connects the negative terminals with another wire, or the same if connecting two cabs to "daisy-chain them". A series cable takes the positive from the amp to the positive of the first cab, then the negative of the first cab to the positive of the second cab, then the negative of the second cab to the negative of the amp (hence it's a loop of three single-conductor cables, not a single dual-conductor cable).

You can then connect two One10 cabs in series which gives you something that can be treated as a 12 ohm Two10S and substituted into the chart above, so for instance two One10 in series then in parallel with a Two10S @ 12 ohm to give a total load of 8 ohms.

Combining a Two10S @ 12 ohm with a One10 (8 ohm) is not a recommended rig because the One10's single speaker will receive ~66% of the power whilst each speaker in the Two10S will receive only ~16%. You'd get at least as much output from the Two10S @ 4 ohm without the risk of blowing up the single driver in the One10.

If you're confused about the impedances I'm listing here, they're all nominal impedances. There's no point getting all fussy about maths on nominal impedances because real impedances are a complex number which varies with frequency and has phase as well as magnitude - if that doesn't make sense, do an image search for: speaker impedance magnitude phase 

You'll then see a load of graphs with two wiggly lines. Frequency from 20-20,000Hz on the x-axis. Magnitude from 0 - 100ish on one y-axis and Phase from -180 deg to + 180 deg on the other y-axis. The single number (like 4 or 8 etc) we quote for nominal impedance is attempting to simplify those two plots of magnitude vs frequency and phase vs frequency into just one number. That's why it is NOMINAL* impedance.

(*In various subfields of engineering, a nominal value is one for which the "name" for the value is close to, but not the same as, the actual value.)

You can trust these nominal impedances to be safe with your amp.

FYI, the individual cab nominal impedances are:

One10 = 8 ohm

Two10S = 4 / 12 ohm switchable

Four10 = 8 ohm (custom 2 ohm version possible)

Six10 = 4 ohm

Eight10 = 4 ohm

 

Just one more thing, as the esteemed Lt Columbo would have said:

The 10CR cabs are not all the same depth front to back.

One10 = 280mm / 11"

Two10S/Four10/Six10 = 330mm / 13"

Eight10 = 400mm / 15.5"

Keep the bigger/deeper cabs on the bottom if you want a stable stack!