My experience upgrading tubes and speaker for HT-1R

[Studuke]

Hi all
I have had a couple of Blackstar amps for gigging but this is my first practice amp from them
As standard pretty damn good
Played it for a couple of weeks and then thought this could be better
Contacted Watford valves in the UK and bought a Celestion Super 8 and their recommended valve kit,a Harma ECC 83 retro and a Phillips 12ax7
What a difference
Cleaner at much higher volume and the drive channel is classic Brit Rock. The fizz is gone
I am no engineer but it only took me 20 mins to do. Everything is push fit. NB you do have to unscrew the handle set screws to remove the internal gubbins. All very straight forward and done with no specialist tools
Hope that helps anyone considering a swap
Costs less than £50 incl postage
Stu

[calnyc]

My Blackbird 15 blew after only two months. I have no idea what I could have done wrong but it sounds like someone stick an icepick in it. I am not even going to bother with the warranty through Korg here in the States. I have a Celestion Eight 15 on order which sounds like a better fit for my style based on YouTube videos I have watched. Really surprised that the speaker died that fast. I don't even play very loud.

[ndjordjevic]

I just felt I should mention that the Celestion Super 8 that is available now is 8 ohms. The stock HT-1 speaker is 16 ohms.

So, I assume that this is not an issue since many of you already have the speaker upgraded, right?

Thanks

[Classicplayer]

It has not been an issue with my HT1R combo. The back Of the cabinet on the HT1R shows the ohm range for speakers. I had good luck with Blackbird for over two years, but got tired of the rasp in the highs. The Celestion Eight Fifteen is tighter sounding without the rasp, although the Blackstar "sound" still comes through. My listening has adapted to it, but I understand that some are not so eager to embrace it. It's not the Fender or Marshall sound strictly speaking IMHO. The gain does resemble Marshall and the clean side resembles a Fender Bassman sort of sound. I have not tried my HT1R with any other type of speaker configuration, so my knowledge is limited only to what other owners say.

Tip: Provided by more than one on this forum. Try to spray or drop some Deoxit or similar cleaner/lubricant in the tube sockets when changing tubes or when you suspect the HT1R is losing some of it's sheen or brilliance. It helps to keep the amp sounding in its' top tone.

Classicplayer

[bharris22]

Hi Everyone,

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I am now considering upgrading the speaker on my combo. I assume that since the external speaker can be anywhere from 4-16 ohms, I would be better off using the 4 ohm Celestion Eight 15 rather than the 8 ohm version - is that correct? In other words, I assume that the 4 ohm version will have slightly louder output, and based on the external speaker connection it seems like the head is able to handle a 4 ohm load. If someone could please confirm this for me, I would appreciate it.

Thanks!

[thephantum]

A 4 ohm speaker will work, but the issue is that you will not be able to use an external speaker/cab with it. You'll have to use one or the other. If that's not an issue, go for it.

[bharris22]

Ah - got it. So then am I correct that I am better off with the 8 ohm Celestion than the 16 ohm Celestion, even though I understand the stock speaker is 16 ohms? If I put in the 8 ohm Celestion, I will still be able to use an external cabinet, correct, even if my external cabinet is also 8 ohms?

[thephantum]

If you have an 8 ohm internal speaker you will be able to use it with either an 8 ohm or 16 ohm cab. The following will be the resulting loads on the amps OT:

• 8 ohm internal + 8 ohm cab = 4 ohms total
  8 ohm internal + 16 ohm cab = 5.3 ohms total

[bharris22]

OK - I just got off the phone with Blackstar support in the UK, and they advised that:

1) a 4 ohm internal speaker should be fine, and
2) since the external speaker and internal speaker are on a switched jack, only one will sound at a given time (which matches with my experience). Thus, without connecting an external speaker the amp will simply play through the internal 4 ohm speaker, and then if I connect an external cab at 8 ohms (for example), nothing will go through the internal speaker, so that should be fine.

Please let me know if this doesn't sound correct to you, as it does to me.

[thephantum]

You learn something new everyday. I did not know that about the HT-1. From the handbook:

2. Speaker Outputs
The output marked ‘4-16 ohms’ is for the connection of an extension speaker cab with an impedance of 4 to 16 ohms.

Note: The combo’s internal speaker will be disconnected when an external speaker cabinet is connected.