2-ohm and 4-ohm

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slayeddragon

New Member
if you get 2-ohm subwoofer, is that mean you need to get 2-channel amplifier too? what amplifier can handle 2-ohm that will not overheat...and what's the difference between 4-ohm? and which is better? thanks...


and wattage of subwoofer must be higher than amplifier, right? so it will not mess up your subwoofer, is it true?
 
sorry about that man...that's why I came to this *online* forum, I know nothing about audio but I have a set-up...friend of mine made it...so, it's not necessary to get 2 channel ampli for your pair 2-ohm sub? please don't get mad...calm down...just a newbie here...and what's the difference of single and dual voice coil?
 
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if you get 2-ohm subwoofer, is that mean you need to get 2-channel amplifier too? what amplifier can handle 2-ohm that will not overheat...and what's the difference between 4-ohm? and which is better? thanks...


and wattage of subwoofer must be higher than amplifier, right? so it will not mess up your subwoofer, is it true?
You do not need a 2-channel amplifier to drive a subwoofer. Many amps today can handle a 2-ohm load.

The difference between a 2-ohm load and a 4-ohm load is the "resistance" of the coil. It will allow the driver to draw more/less current from the amp to achieve a certain power level. There is no "better" - only matching your driver resistance to get the proper amount of power from your amp.

And you should match the power/wattage rating of your subwoofer to your amplifier.
 
And you should match the power/wattage rating of your subwoofer to your amplifier.
I was always told to get an amp more powerfull than the speaker it will drive, so you won't burn out the amp. not sure how true it is, but makes sense to me
 
I was told in different way, someone told me if your ampli is higher, it will burn out your subwoofer...can someone enlighten us regarding this issue and what's the difference of single and dual voice coil?
 
I used to have a guy that had his own stereo shop and I am not the most knowledgable but he always told me to match everything up the best you can, the more dead match they are, the better results you will get, then it would be just tweaking from there. As for the 2 and 4 ohm and the 2 and 4 channel, 2 totally different things. Channels are on an amp as for how many speakers you plan on running in your system, if you have a system that will only be running one sub then you get a mono amp (mono being 1 channel). The ohm situation, most amps will tell you what ohmage they are stable at, might have to find specifications online somewhere (just get the model number off of it and google it), it is kinda hard to explain what ohmage is but there is a site (http://www.the12volt.com/) that will tell you just about anything you would like to know about stereos and such. Hope that helps ya!
 
About amp power and speaker power handling:


Every rule of thumb about EVERYTHING is pure bullshit in order to try and help ignorant or plain stupid people to not fuck shit up.


The last rule of thumb you'll ever need. I dont believe I should censor myself with this point because this is the bottom line.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Now let's go over each way we could "match" these guys together and discover why people make up such things:

1) Using an amplifier of "too little" power or "not too much" power.
On one hand you'd think "My 300W amp cant hurt my 400W sub" - but the people on the left will scream "Clipping will kill the woofer because your amp cant supply enough power and you'll turn it up [BECAUSE YOU'RE STUPID]".

I added the [..] part because this is what they mean when they say it. If you set your gain at a relative level so your maximum HU level wont cause clipping - no one will die.

2) Using an amplifier of "too much" power or "more than needed"
Same damn thing. But it's a bitch to set a 1XXX watt amp to 350W without an oscilloscope. So most people dont do it.

Why would you do it? Because the amp is sitting around? You buy shitty amps? I dont know. Doesn't seem cost effective as you can get fairly good amps at good prices.

3) Matching power handling to power output
Again, no argument here. Same ol' thang.

The overall point is to understand your limits in order to keep your gear in good form. If you need more bass you need to change something.
 
Single voice coil drivers will list one impedance (resistance - real and "imaginary"). They have one coil winding to power.

Dual voice coil drivers list two impedances (usually the same) because they have "two coils" interwound. This gives you the option of placing those coils in series or parallel. Ex: Dual 4ohm coil gives you a 2ohm option (parallel) or 8ohm option (series).

You can power just one coil of a DVC driver, but you lose about 20-30% of the power handling. This also alters the parameters of the driver which changes the required box size for a given target response.
 
i couldn't have explained that any better myself
 
leave it to Tommy to sort things out. : thumbup:

I learned that its all in how you fine tune it. I like my music a certain way. I tuned my JL 1000 mono amp. Thats 1000 continouse watts to two 450 watt subs. They play to a nice loud yet clean tune. I dont have to turn the amp as high as i did with my cheapo yet effective fosgate 600 watt 2 channel amp. i can but then i run the risk of overpowering them and frying the voice coils. After all its heat. I notice a distortion right away. when the bass in the head unit or the gain on the amp is turned to high.

what i dont get is how some fools ride around like that thinking its cool and dont realize they are frying the subs.

Also about impedence. In my case a 600watt 4 ohm bridged amplifier sounded just as loud as 1 ohm bridged. There was a slight difference but not that noticable after turning up and jamming out. i do know that my signal was cleaner.

hope my experience helps noobie
 
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