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I have just bought a guitar Cabinet (Harley Benton G112) but when I connect anything to it, the volume is very low.

I have tried the Phones out of my Boss Katana 50, with all volume up — it's hearable but not loud enough by a long shot.
I have also tried connecting my Boss GX-100, which is barely hearable.

Am I misunderstanding how I can use this guitar cabinet, or could there be something wrong with the device?

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Am I misunderstanding how i can use this guitar cabinet [...]?

Yes. It needs a "power amplifier" to drive it. Probably of the order of at least a Watt (typical guitar amplifiers are 5W - 100W, so this is what you need to drive the cabinet)

Headphone amplifiers are of the order of tens of milliwatts, so a headphone output will be hugely underpowered.

Similarly the output from your boss Boss GX-100 is designed to go into an amplifier, so has basically no power by itself.

You could use any guitar amplifier, or something designed as a fairly flat power amplifier (Seymour Duncan Powerstage, Orange Pedal Baby are a couple of products along this line).

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  • Would a Harley Benton GPA-100 also do the trick? My intention was to have a cheap way of playing through my katana and my GX-100 at the same time for when someone came over and we want to play 2 guitars or guitar/bass together.
    – Kevin
    Commented Dec 1, 2023 at 17:15
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    Yes - the GPA-100 looks like a budget alternative to the two I mentioned, but that's exactly what it it's designed for.
    – DavidW
    Commented Dec 1, 2023 at 17:22
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    This information should have been in your question. I had assumed you wanted an extra cab on the Katana, using the GX as a modeller in front.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Dec 1, 2023 at 17:46
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    In addition, outputs that are not designed to drive an 8 Ohm speaker could be damaged by connecting it to one!
    – Kaz
    Commented Dec 2, 2023 at 6:30
  • @Kaz Pretty much unlikely to be damaged, on the other hand the impedance mismatch decreases the output power even more.
    – fraxinus
    Commented Dec 2, 2023 at 19:23
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You need an amplifier with speaker output from the power amp.

The Harley Benton is a 60 watt cabinet. Your Katana & GX won't be outputting more than about a watt, if that.
The Katana looks like it ought to be able to do it, but it doesn't have a speaker out, only line level. It has power amp in, but not out.

From https://www.boss.info/uk/products/katana-50_mk2/specifications/

Connectors

INPUT jack: 1/4-inch phone type
POWER AMP IN jack: 1/4-inch phone type
REC OUT/PHONES jack: Stereo 1/4-inch phone type
EXP PEDAL/CTL CH1/CH2 jack: 1/4-inch TRS phone type
AUX IN jack: Stereo miniature phone type
USB port: USB B type
AC IN jack

One problem with using the existing Katana to output to an independent power amp is that it will already include speaker emulation, meaning you'll get two lots of 'speaker sound', one emulated, the other real.
You could get a tech to have a look at the Katana & see if it would stand a buffered new output to be able to run both cabs at once. I wouldn't recommend DIY, you need to match impedances properly, or you risk blowing up the amp.

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