ohms....

[NH68GTO]

New here....and going to ask a dumb question.

When amps say they put out xx at 4ohms and xx at 2oms...or what have you.

how do you achieve these values???

Or if a product can handle xx at... well ya know...//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/tongue.gif.6130eb82179565f6db8d26d6001dcd24.gif

Thanks.

Click to read more...

 

[18inchjeepin 10+ year member]

subs are made in single or dual 4, 2,1 ect ohm voice coils, and you either connect a single voice coil or multiples( through series or parrellel) wiring. Do you have examples of what you are looking for?

 

[NH68GTO]

subs are made in single or dual 4, 2,1 ect ohm voice coils, and you either connect a single voice coil or multiples( through series or parrellel) wiring. Do you have examples of what you are looking for?

Not really...just a general break down. An example may help me. series or parallel wiring..? All I know is +/- or bridge... I know, I know, take it easy on me....//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crazy.gif.c13912c32de98515d3142759a824dae7.gif

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

http://www.bcae1.com

Read up //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[MikeyF 10+ year member]

http://www.the12volt.com/caraudio/woofer_configurations.asp Just punch in the amount of speakers, and what ohms they are, and it will explain it visually as well.

 

[NH68GTO]

Thanks everyone!! Read a lot and I admit I am confused in all the terms,... but I do understand it now (well better...).

Thanks again.

 

[ultimate157 5,000+ posts]

Just gotta keep reading, over and over. You'll get it eventually.

 

[Lonnie 10+ year member]

Ty for posting this thread lol. Was just about to post one myself so I got an argument for my dad. He has NO idea what impedance means and I was right HAH. He tried using the fancy word to try and back up saying that its ok to hook up different subs to the same amp. Wants me to hook my 2 type rs and a 15 to an amp...keep telling him I cant it could screw everything up. His fancy word is now gone.

 

[tigerf117 10+ year member]

Here's how I explain it to people.

Think of ohms as resistance. The more resistance you have, the less power (like swimming in water is 2ohms of resistance, but swimming in honey would be 8ohms of resistance). Speakers have a set resistance on each voice coil (where you hook the speaker up, or the + and - terminals for simplicities sake sale it the voice coil). So when a speaker is a single voice coil 4ohm speaker, if you hook it up to an amp that puts out 200watts @ 4 ohms, it will obviously put out 200w. Now if you have a 2ohm sub and that amp does not go down to 2ohms stable, you will be pulling more power out of the amp than it's designed for. It will get hotter and probably go into protect mode.

What can start to get confusing is when you have multiple voice coils (whether on the same or different speakers themselves). You have two ways of hooking them up , either series or parallel (or combination)

http://www.eng.cam.ac.uk/DesignOffice/mdp/electric_web/DC/DC_7.html

That's a general link about series and parallel. The main importance to remember is that parallel decreases resistance (measured in ohms) and series add to resistance. The matt is really easy. two 4ohm voice coils, can be bridged in parallel (remember lowers resistance) so the final ohms of resistance would be 2ohm (or final impedance). If we wired them inseries, it would double to 8ohms. Either way it can double or halve (assuming same voice coil impedances)

seriesl

parallel

The real important thing to note here is series is only making one pathway through the voice coils so it hits 4ohms of resistance then another 4ohms on each voice coil, adding up to 8ohms total resistance

parallel on the other hand splits the connection, therefore making multiple paths for the power to through different voice coils. Its like adding multiple lanes on a highway, the more lanes you have the more traffic, so you would halve that number down to 2. The more "lanes" like in my analogy, the less resistance, the less resistance the more power.

http://mobile.jlaudio.com/support_pages.php?page_id=161 Good link showing visual representations of all the ways to wire up subs.

Remember, don't run an amp below its lowest rated impedance. Most 2 ch amps are rated 2ohm stereo, and 4ohms bridged. So two 4ohn voice coils could only be hooked up at 8ohms bridging that amp (remember it would halve if we wired it in parallel to 2ohms, below that minimum impedance or resistance).

 

[Stalin-ohaulic]

The main importance to remember is that series decreases resistance (measured in ohms) and parallel add to resistance. The matt is really easy. two 4ohm voice coils, can be bridged in series (remember lowers resistance) so the final ohms of resistance would be 2ohm (or final impedance). If we wired them in parallel, it would double to 8ohms.

To the bolded portions... they are backwards. Series is resistors in-line with no other path for current to flow. Parallel are more than one paths and obviously since there are more paths, it's easier to flow.

Either way it can double or halve.

That is IF you're using the same value resistors. Mix and match and you'll get results you probably didn't expect. In a parallel circuit it's always smaller than the smallest.

 

[Witty690 10+ year member]

two 4ohm voice coils, can be bridged in series (remember lowers resistance) so the final ohms of resistance would be 2ohm (or final impedance). If we wired them in parallel, it would double to 8ohms.

parallel on the other hand splits the connection, therefore making multiple paths for the power to through different voice coils. Its like adding multiple lanes on a highway, the more lanes you have the more traffic, so you would halve that number down to 2.

Thanks for clearing that one up

Edit: Well Im slow

 

[tigerf117 10+ year member]

I had it backwards copied it, then switched it around but never recopied, lemme fix it