Community: Message List

Re: considering Lowdown amp HD?

support@line6.com — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 04:40:29 GMT

Love mine, I have two.

I have a LD150 combo... use it for auditions and small practice situations. I have used it as an onstage monitor when being pumped thru a large PA (with subs doing the real lifting). I have set it on the front of the stage facing me and used the XLR out to the front of house system. Allows for traveling real light when the situation is right.

I have an HD400 in a rack case, along with power conditioning, effects and rack mounted tuner. This is my normal play out system plus I have a number of cabinet arrangements. First, all of my cabs are 8 ohm and in the case where I want a lot of bass surface without going thru a house system I have available the following... 1x4-10s, 3x2-10's and 2x1-15.

I can use upto 3 of those six cabinets for sound and total desires. I have showed up with say 6-10s and a 1-15 (75" of surface) and kept the volume down but moved a lot of air. People tell me that I am not too loud, but I am thumping their chests to no end. Which is why I have the different cabinet combinations for this amp. A lot of flexibility, based on the venue and the type of music being performed.

Re: LD 300 Pro blinking light

support@line6.com — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 21:34:29 GMT

While I agree with the reason the light blinks (settings altered), I have both an LD150 and a HD400 (for larger gigs) which runs everything from multiple 15" upto 8-10's. I have run both amps at reasonably high volumes for each amp respectively and have never had the lights start blinking due to a control moving as theroized. I also seems to see these comments, more often, on LD300 & LD400 amps making me wonder if this is more of an issues with those specific models.

Re: lowdown hd400 head + peavey 4x10 cab

support@line6.com — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 15:18:17 GMT

Yes this cabinet will work perfectly with your HD400 head. Since it is 8 ohms you will get a little over 50% of the total power your amp is capable of delivering. I believe something in the ~275w range. You could use two (2) 8 ohm cabinets (or one (1) 4 ohm cabinet) to achieve the total output capability of the HD400 amp head... 400w !!

The only caveat is... you WILL need a Speakon to 1/4" plug cable to connect your head to this cabinet as this cabinet only shows it has 1/4" connectors... any good guitar store will have them or you can order one off of EBay.

Best of Luck & Enjoy !!

Keith

Re: LD150 - Using MP3/CD Input Jack

support@line6.com — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 00:44:48 GMT

No, I never did neither (fix or figure it out). I cannot even remember if I checked my HD400 although I kind of think I did and it was fine. I had the chance to pickup a small Fender practice amp that was similarily equiped (for less than a song and a dance), I just figured it was a better deal than paying a repair bill, plus it was smaller and better sized for being in my office when I want to grab my bass and rip off a few lines.

Keith

Re: HD 400 and lowdown410

support@line6.com — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 12:46:42 GMT

YES, you can certainly use the 410 (8 ohm) cabinet and it will work just fine. HOWEVER, you will not get the full power of the HD400 since you are running at 8 ohms rather than a 4 ohm load. You could therefore, run the HD400 with two (410 or equivelent) cabinets or a single 4 Ohm cabinet to achive the rated power output of the HD400 head.

Keith

Re: Speakers and cabinets for HD400

support@line6.com — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 04:15:59 GMT

osborned,

First check that the standing ohmage with no load is not really lower than you think you are connecting.

I was involved in another discussion about this very point.

[YMMV]

As far as I know, I have not opened my HD400, and based on what I read, or did not read, in the LowDown Manual, I believe the speaker jacks are connected in parallel on the amp head. The only reason I bring this up is you keep referring to connecting a specific load to one jack and another load to the other jack. As I understand it, the amp sees a single combined load of your enclosures. So hooking a 4 ohm to one jack and an 8 ohm to another jack is no different that chaining, via either amp jack to both cabinets as long as the multiple jacks on the cabinets are wired in parallel.

[/YMMV]

Barring NOT dropping to a 2 Ohm load, the only I can think of is poor ventilation. Especially is you are playing outside in July and it is 95 in the shade with no wind movement, you might need to put a fan on it to assist in heat transfer, but at 2.6667 my ran for 4 hours at a time with no outages.

Regards,

Keith

Re: Speakers and cabinets for HD400

support@line6.com — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 20:52:01 GMT

osborned,

One Final thought... if you get ONE more BP102 and make a cabinet of 3 x BP102's

you will crank the HD400 into about ~600W...

3 of the BP102s, in parallel, will get you to an effective 2.667 Ohms load, at which the

HD400 will run FULLY OPEN...

If you can build the cabinet, one more speaker is all you need !!!

Regards,

Keith

Re: Speakers and cabinets for HD400

support@line6.com — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 20:44:55 GMT

osborned,

You are on the path, OK... you can connect upto 8 speakers the way you are going with the BP102's wiring each pair in series and then paralleling them. Surface wise you can push more air, most of the time, with 2 x10"s than 1-15". I like having the sound of a 15" in the mix personally, but once you get past 4 x 10" the difference is very hard to discern, at least for me.

If you have to compete with a loud guitarist, you need to worry MORE about pushing air than pure volume. How much surface area can you apply to the signal area. This is why 4 x 10" became more popular than the old standard of 2 x 15" as you have 10 more inches of sound surface. Even if the "volume" isn't quite what you are looking for, if the people can feel the bass waves they will still get the benefit of the bass line.

More than once I have had band mates freak when I rolled in a huge stack. They soon found out it wasn't about playing louder than them, but the people out front were sure aware of when I was and was not playing.

I am still of the opinion if you need more than a HD400 can provide thru 4-6 - 10" speakers, then you definately need to be in the FOH sound system and let the SUBS do their job ! Thats why it is called Sound Reinforcement.

Regards,

Keith

Re: Lowdown HD400 Output RMS?

support@line6.com — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 21:09:32 GMT

ProdigalBassman,

I will certainly defer to your Electrical Engineering background as to the reasons, no question and it goes with everything I have pretty much heard over the years. I choose to use 2 x 2-10" (8 ohm cabs) so I get my 4 Ohm

load and therefore pretty much all the power I need. If you need more stage power, go with the HD750, if you can still find one, most likely used, as I believe they are no longer being made/sold new.

I am fortunate to be playing with a band that has a very modular PA that can go from 1-15" (w horn) per side up to

2 x 18" subs + 2 x 15" subs + 3 x 12" mids + 2 x 15" + 2 horns/per side. Something that most small bands do

not have available. If I need more power than my HD400 and 4 x 10" can provide, I am certainly going to be in the FOH system utilizing the PA to do the heavy lifting. Therefore I have no use for a HD750, personally.

For really small gigs and practices I have an LD150 that never ceases to amaze me as to how much that single

12" can crank out. Like the HD400, the LD150 has a line out so the FOH is available there and on stages that were huge and had exceptional powered and capable stage monitors... I have used the LD-150 as a personal monitor and left everything else to the sound system (stage monitor band wise as well as FOH).

My days of carrying huge amps is long over !! That was something I used to do when I was young & stupid !!

Regards,

Keith

Re: Lowdown HD400 Output RMS?

support@line6.com — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 22:16:33 GMT

One final point to consider. Do Not just take the name plate rating as gospel, either !!

Meter out the load BEFORE connecting to your amp head. The ratings on speakers are

approx in reality. Some, expensive, speakers will read what you expect. However,

I have found speakers rated at, say 8 Ohms, come in as low as 6.8 or 6.9 and over 9

Ohms in actuality. You will want to know what YOUR speakers really are, again,

BEFORE you connect them and really damage your amp !!!!!