2 ohms 4 ohms 8 ohms help!!!!!!!

[pj2003 10+ year member]

i have an ALPINE mono power amp with 700 watts max. i also have 2 10"SONY Xplod p5 design subs. my subs are 4 ohms. my amp can run 200 watts RMS at 4 ohms or it can run 350 watts RMS at 2 ohms which i suppose makes it 2 ohm stable am i right????? i looked up on the internet to see what ohms my amp was ruunning at and it is running at 2 ohms because it is wired in parallel. can ur amp run at 2 ohms and ur subs run at 4 ohms at the same time because on a real low hit of bass my subs just cut off and then just the factory speakers will play till u recrank. someone told me Alpine amps and SONY subs were not even compatible is he right????? any help is highly appreciated

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[blushadow_db160 10+ year member]

it is very hard on the subs when running 2ohm power into a 4ohm subs worse with 2. First of all any sub is capatible with and amp. What you are doing to make it cut out is you are overloading your amp(not good). hook your subs in parallel also. If you don't know how i will tell you. your amp is mono right. which means one speaker cable coming out. Split that cable into 2. You should end up with 2 positive and 2 negative. run one positive and one negative into one sub and the others to the other sub. if still cuts out check to make sure the amp is getting enough power. like power cable condition, fuse. Grounding point all of these can cause a power shortage.

 

[pj2003 10+ year member]

the way u said to wire it is the way it is wired which is parallel and by it being parallel it puts a 2 ohm load on my amp. what i want to know is is if u can have ur amp running on 2 ohms with two 4ohm subs. oh yea and i didnt hook it up i had it hooked up it circuit city and honestly i wanna find something they did wrong with the wiring and get a refund on all this crap (besides the subs cause them new SONY 5 sided 10's hit lower than a lot of other 10's i've heard)

 

[mattj 5,000+ posts]

the way u said to wire it is the way it is wired which is parallel and by it being parallel it puts a 2 ohm load on my amp. what i want to know is is if u can have ur amp running on 2 ohms with two 4ohm subs. oh yea and i didnt hook it up i had it hooked up it circuit city and honestly i wanna find something they did wrong with the wiring and get a refund on all this crap (besides the subs cause them new SONY 5 sided 10's hit lower than a lot of other 10's i've heard)

The guy who responded to your post doesnt have any idea what he is talking about so here it goes.

Your 2 (SVC 4 ohm) subwoofers wired in parallel is a 2 ohm load which what your amp runs at. There is no possible way to, as he said, running the sub at 4 ohm and amp at 2 ohm. Its just physicly impossible. Ok, back to what I was saying. Your options for running your subs is 2 ohm (with 2 - 4 ohm SVC subwoofers) which would be wired parallel, or 8 ohm when its wired in series.

The amp and subs are compatible and whoever told you they werent doesnt know what they are talking about. As for the amp cutting out, it might be getting hot. Is your gain cranked 100%? If not, check your wiring but im sure its your amp overheating.

 

[eaglemn05 10+ year member]

sounds familiar, that's what mine did was cut off....my subs are wired in a parrallel on a 4 channel amp....smae subs 10" p5 series....just check the gain, worked for me

 

[pj2003 10+ year member]

ok since that i have two 4 ohm subs that means i should run my amp at 4 ohms also?????? since it is wired parallel it is running at 2 ohms which would not match with the speakers am i right????? but if i ran it in series it would be 8 ohms and i would not meet the RMS of the subs so what should i do?????? new amp or new subs????

 

[mattj 5,000+ posts]

Forget anything you think about "matching the speakers" and just follow what i said and youll be perfectly fine.

 

[eaglemn05 10+ year member]

The guy who responded to your post doesnt have any idea what he is talking about so here it goes.Your 2 (SVC 4 ohm) subwoofers wired in parallel is a 2 ohm load which what your amp runs at. There is no possible way to, as he said, running the sub at 4 ohm and amp at 2 ohm. Its just physicly impossible. Ok, back to what I was saying. Your options for running your subs is 2 ohm (with 2 - 4 ohm SVC subwoofers) which would be wired parallel, or 8 ohm when its wired in series.

The amp and subs are compatible and whoever told you they werent doesnt know what they are talking about. As for the amp cutting out, it might be getting hot. Is your gain cranked 100%? If not, check your wiring but im sure its your amp overheating.

i have a question about that....which would be better parellel or series? or are they aobut the same? i wired mine in a parallel, or what i think would be the same thing as a parrallel...i have two wires from the amp (into one output screw) to the positives and two for the negatives....i didn't really splice them and do it that way, i just put the wires together at the amp (i hope you understand what i am saying) is that ok?

 

[noleafclover803 10+ year member]

sounds like that would work ok

 

[pj2003 10+ year member]

so my 4 ohm subs "should" work fine with my amp running at 2 ohms????

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

The impedance of your individual subs are irrelevant. What is relevant is the final load that the amp "sees." Your amp is stable to 2 ohms. Your subs happen to be 4 ohms each which when wired in parallel results in a 2 ohm load. You could get the same final impedance from 4 8ohm subs in parallel or 2 1 ohm subs in series. That is all the amp cares about, final impedance.

Most likely, your amp is cutting out because you have your amp gain set too high, you have the bass boost turned up, your power/ground connections are inadequate, or some combination thereof. These will cause the amp to overheat, draw too much current or dip the voltage supply and put the amp in protect mode to keep it from self destructing.