amp mods?

[hondarider 10+ year member]

Can you modify an amp to be stable at a lower ohm? And would that give you twice the power?

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[ljb211087 10+ year member]

Hi there, i don't know a terrible lot about amps but i know a whole heap about electronics. Can you make an amp stable at a lower impedance? Theoretically yes, but in practical terms no. The heart of an amp consists of mosfets, semiconductors that basically take a small input voltage and pass a larger voltage through. Heat is of a main concern here, as the mosfets do have a small resistance, heat is dissapated according to p=i^2*R where R is the resistance of the mosfet, and i being the current flowing through the mosfets source and drain. If you present a lower load to the amp than it expects, you effectively boost the current needed to supply the load (i=v/r) , hence more heat is produced. Depending on the amp and the type of mosfet, generally at the quoted stable load you don't have much space to play with. Assuming the power supply was beefy enough, and the components in the amp have enough headroom, you could replace the mosfets with higher spec ones, have plenty of cooling then maybe you could get more power but again this is highly unlikely and very impractical. So my answer is, Don't bother, get a new amp or be happy with the one you have