whats up with 2 ohm speakers??

[Steveopevo 10+ year member]

Infinity and JBL have a "true 4-ohm" philosophy saying that voice coil heat and speaker wire raise impedance thus balancing the load to 4-ohms. but what about amplifier heat and sound quality??

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[gunz4me 10+ year member]

What about impedance rise since these speakers generally play the high frequencies in your system?

As for sound quality, the MMD domes on the Infinity Kappas are quite HARSH, so SQ isn't exactly their best attribute on the higher frequencies.

 

[mendon mafia 10+ year member]

i have to admit that i like the kappa tweeters sound. i love tweets that make you blink, the mid on the other hand are terrible. they sound bad and ive had to get them replaced 4 times within the 1 year warranty period do to all different kinds of failures.

 

[Steveopevo 10+ year member]

What about impedance rise since these speakers generally play the high frequencies in your system?
As for sound quality, the MMD domes on the Infinity Kappas are quite HARSH, so SQ isn't exactly their best attribute on the higher frequencies.

I don't like kappas either but I was considering JBL power series. I just didn't like the idea of running a 2-ohm load on door speakers since I've heard some concerns about it.

 

[timaishu 10+ year member]

Ive been giving my 2 ohms speakers 60w for about 3 months now. no issues.

 

[x2o 10+ year member]

My RE XXX mids are 2ohm, giving them 90-100w right now without any problems...

Not sure what problems you've heard about running at 2ohms, any 2ohm stable amp can play them at 2ohms.

 

[Steveopevo 10+ year member]

My RE XXX mids are 2ohm, giving them 90-100w right now without any problems...
Not sure what problems you've heard about running at 2ohms, any 2ohm stable amp can play them at 2ohms.

problems I heard about were reduced sound quality at lower ohm levels and although an amp is 2-ohm stable it means that it will be running hotter than normal. is 100 watts per speaker even necessary. that would blow my ear drums.

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12208

read the third reply down.

 

[x2o 10+ year member]

problems I heard about were reduced sound quality at lower ohm levels and although an amp is 2-ohm stable it means that it will be running hotter than normal. is 100 watts per speaker even necessary. that would blow my ear drums.
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12208

read the third reply down.

Read the forth reply down, lol.

IMO that's bullshit that you can 'hear' the difference between a 2 and a 4 ohm load. But I'm not one of those crazy SQ heads, so I don't know. I'd understand if I were spending thousands and thousands of dollars on each piece of equipment in my system, then hell yeah I'd want it to sound good. But honestly, considering your here asking this question in the first place has me thinking your running a normal setup, not a 6,000 dollar component set and a 2,000 dollar amplifier. But that may be wrong, just a generalization from what I've seen on CA.com. DIYMA and ICIXsound have some more SQ related infos, but honestly, I think it's total BS to hear the difference in 2 and 4 ohms with any decent amp setup.

 

[gunz4me 10+ year member]

I call BS on reduced sound quality just because a speaker is rated @ 2 ohms. IIRC, the 2 ohm Kappas and JBL speakers can safely be run with head units that are only 4 ohm stable.

My advice, see if you can audition the Polks or JBLs locally, then decide from there. Granted, they won't sound the same in your car, but you should be able to tell if the speaker sounds relatively "clean" in the soundboard.

 

[shaneb 10+ year member]

A lower Impedance will lower the dampening factor in a driver, that is the only place I would see a SQ issue coming into play.

You won't likely tell the difference if you are looking at JBL and Infinity speakers.

On another note, I had a pair of Polk DB series speakers before my Image Dynamics. Honestly, I loved them, if I wasn't running horns, I would get Polk tweeters in a heartbeat. Just not MoMo's.

 

[Steveopevo 10+ year member]

Read the forth reply down, lol.
IMO that's bullshit that you can 'hear' the difference between a 2 and a 4 ohm load. But I'm not one of those crazy SQ heads, so I don't know. I'd understand if I were spending thousands and thousands of dollars on each piece of equipment in my system, then hell yeah I'd want it to sound good. But honestly, considering your here asking this question in the first place has me thinking your running a normal setup, not a 6,000 dollar component set and a 2,000 dollar amplifier. But that may be wrong, just a generalization from what I've seen on CA.com. DIYMA and ICIXsound have some more SQ related infos, but honestly, I think it's total BS to hear the difference in 2 and 4 ohms with any decent amp setup.

yeah, I already did...lol, but there are similar threads that refer to the issue. 2 ohm operation is still gonna run an amp hotter though.

 

[Steveopevo 10+ year member]

A lower Impedance will lower the dampening factor in a driver, that is the only place I would see a SQ issue coming into play.You won't likely tell the difference if you are looking at JBL and Infinity speakers.

On another note, I had a pair of Polk DB series speakers before my Image Dynamics. Honestly, I loved them, if I wasn't running horns, I would get Polk tweeters in a heartbeat. Just not MoMo's.

just found out that the jbl p-series sound like kappas and I don't like kappas so scratch that. I've had polk db650's in my last car and they pounded some great mid bass with 50 watts rms. I wanted something a little better this time around and I was looking at the new polk mm series but holy crap they're rated to 100 watts rms. I want something less power hungry so I guess now I'm looking at some JL c2's.

 

[Steveopevo 10+ year member]

I call BS on reduced sound quality just because a speaker is rated @ 2 ohms. IIRC, the 2 ohm Kappas and JBL speakers can safely be run with head units that are only 4 ohm stable.
My advice, see if you can audition the Polks or JBLs locally, then decide from there. Granted, they won't sound the same in your car, but you should be able to tell if the speaker sounds relatively "clean" in the soundboard.

2 ohm speakers are only safe to run off of a typical 4 ohm h/u if you keep the factory speaker wire 18-22 guage. I asked jbl about it and they said that the primary reason it was safe was using the crappy factory speaker wire which in turn balances the impedance back upto 4 ohms. I said well what if I use 16 guage or lower and they said it could became a problem at that point. But of course I do intend on running an amp so who cares.

 

[shaneb 10+ year member]

just found out that the jbl p-series sound like kappas and I don't like kappas so scratch that. I've had polk db650's in my last car and they pounded some great mid bass with 50 watts rms. I wanted something a little better this time around and I was looking at the new polk mm series but holy crap they're rated to 100 watts rms. I want something less power hungry so I guess now I'm looking at some JL c2's.

If you are looking at coaxials. Image Dynamics CTX series coax beat out JL and some other brands on a reveiw. http://www.caraudiomag.com/reviews/caep_0810_speaker_roundup_image_dynamics_eclipse_exile/index.html I'm running the CTX mids at the moment with horns, I had the tweeters too, they were great. The mids are good. Not sure how much the component and the coaxial differ. But that review speaks for itself.

 

[Steveopevo 10+ year member]

If you are looking at coaxials. Image Dynamics CTX series coax beat out JL and some other brands on a reveiw. http://www.caraudiomag.com/reviews/caep_0810_speaker_roundup_image_dynamics_eclipse_exile/index.html I'm running the CTX mids at the moment with horns, I had the tweeters too, they were great. The mids are good. Not sure how much the component and the coaxial differ. But that review speaks for itself.

well I can see why they're better already, they have bigger motor structure and a deeper excursion. mounting depth is way too deep for the doors in my taurus.