why no 2ohm speakers?

[MiniVanMan 10+ year member]

Also, take into account that even though an amp may have a rating 0f 200 x 2 @ 2 ohms, and 100 x2 @ 4 ohms it never works that way. The 200 x2 @ 2 ohms may accurate but to assume it's doubled of it's 4 ohm rating is wrong. An amp would need an efficiency rating of 100% in order to do that. So in actuality, the higher the impedance, the more watts you get per amp of current. Your amp runs cooler and more efficient.

 

[///M5 10+ year member]

I'd argue that making 4 ohm speakers is sort of a joke these days as well, there is really no reason to not use 8 ohm drivers in your car.

 

[Hintzyboy 5,000+ posts]

Only cost benefit I can see is for the manufacturers. Lower impedence means less money spent on the copper/aluminum for the VCs. With copper prices going up, this might have a small trickle-down effect that saves the consumer a bit of money, but I doubt it.

 

[MiniVanMan 10+ year member]

Only cost benefit I can see is for the manufacturers. Lower impedence means less money spent on the copper/aluminum for the VCs. With copper prices going up, this might have a small trickle-down effect that saves the consumer a bit of money, but I doubt it.

Yeah, that may be the case, but overall, from a marketing standpoint car audio is about power. The more power you can advertise the more you can sell. It has nothing to do with reality.

Your average consumer for car audio will equate more power from an amp to greater volume. Marketing departments see no need to change this way of thinking. It may very well be for the reasons you stated Hintz. But mostly, the myth is already in place, so it's more work than a marketing department is willing to do to change that myth.

Hell marketing departments aren't filled with engineers. So they most likely don't know the difference either.

 

[ngsm13 5,000+ posts]

Indeed sir. Indeed.

nG

 

[IgnoreMe 5,000+ posts]

****. this shit just blew my mind haha. learn something everyday. but efficiency can only go so far no? i mean after a while your just gonna need more power right?

 

[CaliforniabOY5 10+ year member]

Holy Crap! I learned something new. Thanks Ng, even thou i know you despise me for some reason //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

 

[MiniVanMan 10+ year member]

****. this shit just blew my mind haha. learn something everyday. but efficiency can only go so far no? i mean after a while your just gonna need more power right?

Yeah, there's a point where you need to overcome the mechanical properties of the driver. For example the weight of cone. There's a spec called Mms that's a variable within the equation for determining sensitivity. It's basically a detractor due to the mechanical properties of the driver.

So, I'd venture to say, than in a lot of situations, throwing 20 watts into an 8 ohm driver might not get the driver to full excursion as opposed to throwing 40 watts to the same driver but with a 4 ohm coil instead.

After about 50 watts @ 8 ohms, you'll notice very little difference between an 8 ohm driver and a 4 ohm driver driven off the same amp, given the speakers are similar (i.e. Dayton RS180-4, and RS180-8)

 

[Warbleed 10+ year member]

It's a bit of a misnomer to call an 8 ohm driver more efficient than a 4 ohm driver based solely on that information. We can say that's true to an extent if we are holding coil material as a constant, but that's not always the case. For instance if we were comparing a 4 ohm driver to an 8 ohm driver, and the 4 ohm driver is using an aluminum coil and the 8 ohm driver is using a copper coil, the 8 ohm driver could actually be less efficient, if the Mms is low enough on the 4 ohm driver (remember, the two factors in Efficiency are BL and Mms). Now obviously if we're comparing a driver that just offers different impedances, this wouldn't happen, but it certainly could for many other comparisons.

I wouldn't focus on impedance at all when selecting a driver. Realistically, all you need is a driver which is capable of yielding enough output from your amplifier to provide your needs, so realistically speaking, impedance is not relevant, if that requirement is being met.

People focus far too much on having X amount of power available, without bothering to consider whether or not they actually USE that power.

I'm willing to bet a large majority of people would be quite surprised at how little power they actually typically send to their front stage.

Nothing in npdang's article is untrue, but some of the conclusions people are making aren't really justified/correct.

 

[Gary S 10+ year member]

Watts are cheap... buy a bigger amplifier and quit your whining //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/beatdeadhorse5.gif.5d70132dea1eb89b73bf2fdbb6027dd6.gif

 

[elementxero 10+ year member]

Interesting crap, never knew any of this.

 

[Hintzyboy 5,000+ posts]

I did. Only because I made myself look like a douchebag in a similar thread and got thoroughly schooled.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/graduate.gif.d982460be9f153bb54e5d4cb744f6ae8.gif

 

[MiniVanMan 10+ year member]

It's a bit of a misnomer to call an 8 ohm driver more efficient than a 4 ohm driver based solely on that information. We can say that's true to an extent if we are holding coil material as a constant, but that's not always the case. For instance if we were comparing a 4 ohm driver to an 8 ohm driver, and the 4 ohm driver is using an aluminum coil and the 8 ohm driver is using a copper coil, the 8 ohm driver could actually be less efficient, if the Mms is low enough on the 4 ohm driver (remember, the two factors in Efficiency are BL and Mms). Now obviously if we're comparing a driver that just offers different impedances, this wouldn't happen, but it certainly could for many other comparisons.
I wouldn't focus on impedance at all when selecting a driver. Realistically, all you need is a driver which is capable of yielding enough output from your amplifier to provide your needs, so realistically speaking, impedance is not relevant, if that requirement is being met.

People focus far too much on having X amount of power available, without bothering to consider whether or not they actually USE that power.

I'm willing to bet a large majority of people would be quite surprised at how little power they actually typically send to their front stage.

Nothing in npdang's article is untrue, but some of the conclusions people are making aren't really justified/correct.

Yes, but if you add Hoffman's Law into the equation, you start to see the sacrifices you need to make in order to achieve the higher sensitivity, (i.e. low end capability).

So while, it's a rough generalization to say that an 8 ohm is more sensitive than a 4 ohm, there are many other variables that come into play that makes the overall implementation of an higher impedance driver a little more sensitive, and again, more efficient watt to amps.

I think the point that everybody is trying to make is that using higher impedance drivers is just fine, and in the end can be beneficial.

 

[iamamp3pimp 5,000+ posts]

i agree.

i felt the same as the OP at first, until i learned by reading what npdang said.

i put some daytons in my car 98 ohm) and the output was unreal...

 

[samson 10+ year member]

I've switched from an 8ohm to a 4ohm sub (same brand same model). Output was NOT the same. I've switched from 8ohm to 6ohm at my home, output was NOT the same. I can't tell you why in any technical sense, but that link is a bunch of malarky.