ok this may be a newb question to some, but i never understood ohms. i searched for "ohm" and found 1 result which didnt help any. i was just wondering whats the difference between 2 ohms and 4 ohms. im looking into getting alpine type r subs in 10 inch form. but i dont know which one to get. the 2 ohm or 4 ohm. i guess i just need to know what the significance of the ohms are. thanks in advance for clearing this up for me.

 

Ohms measure electrical resistance. The higher the resistance in a circuit, the more ohms.

Car speakers are almost always 4 ohms. If you wire two 4-ohm speakers in parallel, you are doubling the channels the current can take and therefore lowering the resistance, so you'll get a 2 ohm circuit. If you wire two 4-ohm speakers in series, you're setting two obstacles for the current and you'll get an 8-ohm circuit.

Subs are either 2 or 4-ohm.

Running too little resistance heats up the power source, so you should never run a 2-ohm circuit from an amp that's not 2-ohm stable.

Which sub you get depends on how you're powering it. If your amp is stable at 2 or 4 ohms, you can get either, so you'll have to take other considerations into account (like which box does better on the available power).

Hope that helps.

Dan

 

A speaker has a coil, basically an inductor. The ohms on a speaker represent Resistance + Reactance.

 

Yea, the ohms in speakers is impedance. You have to match up your speakers to your amp. Most amps put out different wattages at different loads. Here's my example:

Two 1000 watt 4 ohm subs wired in parallel for a total impedance of 2 ohms along with an amp that puts out 2000 watts with a 2 ohm load.

If my amp was set up with a 4 ohm load, such as if I wired only one of my subs or if I had two 2 ohm speakers in series, my amp would put out a max of 1200 watts (about half) with the 4 ohm load.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ill3galdr1v3r &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">ok this may be a newb question to some, but i never understood ohms. i searched for "ohm" and found 1 result which didnt help any. i was just wondering whats the difference between 2 ohms and 4 ohms. im looking into getting alpine type r subs in 10 inch form. but i dont know which one to get. the 2 ohm or 4 ohm. i guess i just need to know what the significance of the ohms are. thanks in advance for clearing this up for me. </TD></TR></TABLE>Go to http://www.the12volt.com lots of very good info for a "newb" charts, diagrams and explanations done so most anyone can understand and be more comfortable installing 12V stuff into your car 94

 

When you measure resistance with an ohm meter you only measure the DC component.

 

mtx got an 8ohm sub

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by silver-gsr &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">mtx got an 8ohm sub </TD></TR></TABLE>

i thought the jl w7 was 8 ohm also...?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by vw eater &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

i thought the jl w7 was 8 ohm also...?</TD></TR></TABLE> They are 3 ohm VC, for the 8", 10", 12" the JL 13W7-D1.5 is a dual 1.5 ohm VC 94