On the back of my new amp, the speaker out reads "8ohm, OK for 16ohm"....WTF? I haven't tried it yet into my 16 ohm speaker loaded cab, would like to. Will it harm either the speakers or the head? I wouldn't think going out of a lower ohm amp into a higher ohm cab would damage anything, the other way around would I'm sure (?). Is much of a difference in sound to be expected? I know this is a detailed topic and the explanations could get long, just thought it was odd to see that on the amp and I would prefer to use 16 as I have more quality 16ohm speakers than 8. Thanks.
Is this on the Bogner?
quick answer, more later. You can always use a cab rated at more ohms than the output you are using with no fear of damage. It only loads the amp more, which yes... does make a difference (how much is detailed and VERY amp dependant) on sound. It's less ohms that can hurt your amp. If your amp has only an 8 ohm out, you won't hurt it with a 16 ohm cab, but might with a 4 ohm cab.
Now, solid state is different... you probably won't hear a difference in tone, and less probably won't hurt the amp either, as most SS poweramp stages are stable down to 2 ohms.
That's why is probably says "8 ohm, 16 ohm ok."
Thanks Howie, yeah, its the Bogner, odd thing to have on the speaker out jack I know. I'm not taking any chances though, got it worked out now...I wanted to use my Marshall 1960A cab, it kills the Peavey cab. Anyway, it seems the Bogner heads spkr out "ideal" is for 8ohm - so what I ended up doing is unhooking (and leaving those 2 unhooked) 2 of the speakers (all 4 in the cab are obviously 16ohm) and wired up the other 2 (a V30 and a G12T-75, they sound really nice together) in "parallel" to make their resistance 8ohm's each, done. Sounding great!
So, it's a 2x12, with 2 passive radiators... :)