Is there any wattage drop from 1 to 1.5 ohms?

[Sierra08! 10+ year member]

I have seen a few amps that do rated power at 800 @ 2ohms and then 1200 @ 1 ohms, I guess my question is how much power will be lost at 1.5 instead of 1 ohm

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[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

The amp doesn't double power at half the impedance so the power lost may not be that significant. Only real way to tell is with an o-scope. If you don't have an o-scope, use the DMM setting method and the voltage derived from 1200@1 to be on the safe side. That would give you 800w. It might be able to do more, but the difference between 800 and 1200 isn't audible and you can't be sure that you're not clipping the crap out of the amp.

 

[chunky cumz 10+ year member]

Yes you will lose wattage, but as said above it will probably be very insignificant.

 

[Sierra08! 10+ year member]

Yeah I figured that, thats why JL has that stupid 3 ohm sub, so there amps are 1.5-4ohms, thats a tricky company

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

They have a 3ohm sub because that's what the coil that gave them the properties they wanted worked out to. It also behaves more like 4 ohm driver than a 3 ohm.