ZED says running @ 1 ohm is dumb

[RJesus 10+ year member]

CLIFFS:

Main points are bolded. Read the rest if you want.

exert taken from his 40 page manual/rant detailing his new products.

Well now that I mention 1 ohm, I cannot resist getting into this subject.Scenario: Kid buys gizzilion watt amplifier with manufacturer’s specifications of x watts into 4 ohm, y watts into 2 ohm and z watts into 1 ohm. Well let’s take a wild guess and I bet you all that the vast majority will drive the amplifier into 1 ohm.

Why? Easy, he feels that he is getting his “monie’s worth” by doing this. Ok let’s see what reality is. Said amplifier is maybe rated at say 600w into 4 ohm, 1000w into 2 ohm and 1500w into 1 ohm. We will assume that the speaker impedance is resistive. The difference between the 4 and 2 ohm power is 2.2dB, the difference between the 2 and 1 ohm power is 1.76dB and the difference between 4 and 1 ohm power is 3.9dB. So what do these numbers tell us. First if the speaker is 4 ohms vs 2 ohms, no way you can hear any difference. Same issue comparing 2 as to 1 ohm. I grant you that between 4 and 1 ohm there is almost 4dB difference BUT at what price.

Two issues. Low impedance loads affect the amplifier’s sound quality adversely and this is quite easy to prove. Load an amplifier with a 4 ohm woofer and listen. Add parallel resistors to the speaker to make the amplifier think that it is driving a low impedance speaker and listen to the difference in sound quality. You will be surprised. This test is not 100% valid in fact as the resistive loads added, let the amplifier off the hook as the reactive components of the load are confined to the 4 ohm part. The idea of this test is to keep the loudness about constant but load down the amplifier.

The average person can just perceive a 3dB (doubling of power) difference and to actually double the sound pressure on your eardrum, you require TEN TIMES the amplifier power. Yes TEN TIMES no kidding!

The other consequence of driving amplifiers into these ridiculously low impedances is that the amplifier is stressed substantially more as compared to when driven into more sane impedances. Efficiency drops as the losses in the output stages increase dramatically even with our “super efficient” class D amplifiers. We at Zed are absolutely against these silly loads of less than 4 ohm. It serves ONLY to boost the ego of the owner of the car so he can quote numbers to his buddies.

Click to read more...

 

[michaellane 5,000+ posts]

whyere did u get this? pm me link? also if I had a amp that did max power of 2000@4ohms id rn my subs off it. on.ly problem is most 2ch amps that are that powerful are pricey IMO

 

[duece212 5,000+ posts]

Back to the double power and get a 3 db increase theory. Not everything works in every environment like that in the real world though. For daily driving yeah, maybe it can be overkill at times to underdrive an amp, but on a meter every bit counts.

Doubt people are using zed's new stuff for comps though

 

[thegreatestpenn 5,000+ posts]

efficiency only matters with small power systems from my various testing. so an amp that does 300wrms@1ohm would of course be just impractical. Not the same when you are talking about 1500wrms

 

[RJesus 10+ year member]

link

http://www.soundsolutionsaudio.com/forum/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_id=2558

Yeah, competitions are brutal, but for everyone else.... I think theres a lesson to be learned here.

very good read btw.

 

[x2o 10+ year member]

not quite sure if I'm in accordance to everything he's saying..

My Nightshade is far louder to the ear at 1 ohm then at 4 ohm on my SAZ3k... Yet he goes on to state loads before 4 ohm are "insane" and not worth having?

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

 

[thegreatestpenn 5,000+ posts]

not quite sure if I'm in accordance to everything he's saying..
My Nightshade is far louder to the ear at 1 ohm then at 4 ohm on my SAZ3k... Yet he goes on to state loads before 4 ohm are "insane" and not worth having?

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

that's because your sub isn't efficient enough to get full excursion from the power your amp puts out at 4ohm.

the main point is efficiency, but that is a concept of yesteryear. It has been pretty much thrown out the window since 2002 or so

 

[SicAudio 5,000+ posts]

not quite sure if I'm in accordance to everything he's saying..
My Nightshade is far louder to the ear at 1 ohm then at 4 ohm on my SAZ3k... Yet he goes on to state loads before 4 ohm are "insane" and not worth having?

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

he is talking strictly sq reasoning. if ur saz did the same power at 4 ohms as it did at 1 ohm then you would definately notice the quality difference. dampening ect dramatically decrease as load decreases.

 

[RJesus 10+ year member]

seriously? i thought zed was like the god of all audio :\

 

[x2o 10+ year member]

he is talking strictly sq reasoning. if ur saz did the same power at 4 ohms as it did at 1 ohm then you would definately notice the quality difference. dampening ect dramatically decrease as load decreases.

Oh okay, I didn't read the whole document yet (though I saved it). But I thought he was referring to loudness, which is why I was confused.

Carry on then, I butt out of all the SQ stuff. Lmao, I threw that out the window long ago //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[SicAudio 5,000+ posts]

seriously? i thought zed was like the god of all audio :\

he is. nearly every old school amp that has any value is an amp he designed.

 

[chaunb3400 10+ year member]

ghey, he is old and all old guys are into sq

 

[Louisiana_CRX 5,000+ posts]

he is. nearly every old school amp that has any value is an amp he designed.

x2

 

[BeAlLsTaR13 10+ year member]

i am running @ 1 ohm and havnt had a single problem with my subs, or amplifier.. and it isnt even bad on my voltage, maintains 13.8-14.2, sometimes not lower than 13.4...

 

[thegreatestpenn 5,000+ posts]

ghey, he is old and all old guys are into sq

says the guy with powerrangers in his ava //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/tongue.gif.6130eb82179565f6db8d26d6001dcd24.gif