Benefit of 4ohm load over 1ohm

[Motovet 10+ year member]

I have two Rainbow vandiums and two Rainbow amps. One of these amps would fully drive the two @ 1ohm, and the two amps strapped would max them out @ 4ohm. Is there a benefit running the two @ 4ohm over just one @ 1 ohm? Either way would put down about the same wattage, but audible differences, or other factors between the two choices?

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[TMali 10+ year member]

idk, 1 ohm the amp can get warmer

 

[galacticmonkey 5,000+ posts]

Strapping your amps at 4 ohm will put each amp at 2 ohm. So you're really only seeing double the impedance at the amp, not 4 times.

At a higher impedance you draw less current, and the amp stays cooler.

 

[Cap'n Andy 10+ year member]

and because of the higher dampening factor, it can sound better. but that really only applies to mids and highs.

 

[Kyle_Keating 10+ year member]

well, the way amps work, 1 ohm will probably give you a lot more power (I^2*R) then running the driver at 4 ohms, but theoretically speaking if you can get as much power from 4 ohms vs 1 ohm there is less I^2*R losses due to heat because the current is much lower. Lets use 100 watts as an example.

100 = 10 amperes * 10 amperes * 1 ohm s

.........OR

100 = 5 amperes * 5 amperes * 4 ohms

Of course with 4 ohms you need a lot more volts (electrical potential) to achieve that 100 watt load, but you'll have less losses doing it so 4 ohms would indeed be better than 1 ohm. There other reason high voltage is also ideal is because with very high BL drivers, you get a larger impedance and you NEED more voltage to driver the speaker. As you can see if you add BL, the impedance increases, but if your current stays the same, you get less and and less power. You need more voltage to maintain the same power level with high BL drivers. - this also ties into the myth that big SPL drivers need high power (they actually don't....)