impedance / ohms

[mattchuej8]

whats it mean?
i got a kenwood sub and theres different ways of connecting it to the one amp.
theres 4 impedance or 8 impedance.
impedance (that horse shoe kinda kike symbol) right? LOL

which is better to run the sub on?
4 or 8?

my sub
http://au.kenwood.com/Car_Entertainm...s/KFC-W3514DVC

if u need to knwo what it is.

[hydie]

Its called Ohms Law, and your right, its the horse shoe type symbol. Below is a link that will interest you. Its a great site and easy to understand.

The12Volt - Ohms Law

If that doesn't help, i will try to explain it later... Lol.

[Fr3aKi3]

Is the sub a dual 4ohm or dual 2ohm?

If it's a dual 4ohm then you can only run it at either 2ohm or 8 ohms.
Dual 2: then its just 1 or 4ohm.

Lets assume its a dual 4ohm sub, personally i'd be running it in parallel so that it'd be working at 2ohm (it's actually how i've got mine setup, albeit with a different sub). One thing to consider though is the power rating of the amp, check to be sure that the amp itself will handle a 2ohm load. Most amps will but no harm in checking to be sure.

I don't think you'd want to run the sub at 8ohm, it'll work but I don't know of any amps that will output enough power at 8ohms that will run a sub efficiently.

[tefu]

8 ohm usually for HI FI

but if you do 2 ohm, check if your amp can take 2 ohm load.

[Mugen Civic]

answer to your question is depends what your amp can power.

if its rated at 4 Ohms, then match to that. This is the most common one.

[Frost_FD]

What is the benifit of using high ohms?
I dont understand it, wouldnt it be better using lower ohms so you can transfer more power to the sub?

Im using a PDX 1.600 what would be the best ohm setting to use for this?

[trism]

actually, ohms is the resistance

lower the ohms, lower the resistance, and therefore, more power

but jsut be aware, not all amps can handle low resistnace

most budget amps will only handle4ohm, with more expensive ones handling 2, thenmore expensive again can handle 1 ohm, or even less

your pdx 1.600 can handle 2oh, minimum. at that, it can produce 600wrms

[Frost_FD]

That answers my queries, thanks =P

[danyboi]

easiest is use the configuration that has the least ohms, that the amp can handel, to get most power out of the sub

[TYP32]

Impedance/ohms is resistance true, with amps and subs make sure you match them, dont go buying a pair of 4ohm DVC (dual voice coil) subs and expect them to run off a amp that is only stable to 2ohms. 1x4ohm DVC sub = 2x2ohm/voice coils... 2 of those 4ohm DVC subs will have a current draw of 1ohm therefore if your amp doesnt run at least stable down to 1ohm it will do 1 of 2 things, overheat and constantly shut down or simply blow. Always match your sub power handling WRMS as well as the ohms/impedance, your sub seems to be a dual 4ohm config (what i could gather from googling), so your best bet would be to have a 2ohm stable monoblock amp to power it.
One thing to keep in mind, resistance is like control, like water flowing from a tap (sorry bout the lame eg) but simply put, more resistance = more control, less resistance = hi flow but less control, all depends on the quality of control/bass you want.

[Lil Dan]

Yeah I dont think any alpine amps can run at 1ohm stable? I could be wrong though. Like someone said above, general rule of thumb is if you go for a single sub to buy a dual 4ohm and if you go two to get dual 2ohm.

Thankfully, I have an amp that is 1ohm stable so I can go either dual 4 or dual 2 without too much worry.

Personally, I dont like single voice coil subs. They should put out the same power as a dual voice coils, but are limited in terms of flexibility.

[arverson]

2ohm ftw