4Ω vs. 2Ω

What exactly is the difference between Ω's?

 

LOL after Mr. Marv spanked me in another thread I'll wait for his answer on this one along with ya!

 

Ω=ohm
ohm's measure resistance

The mathematical equation that describes this relationship is:

I = V/R

where I is the current in amperes, V is the potential difference in volts,and R is a circuit parameter called the resistance (measured in ohms, also equivalent to volts per ampere).

 

I think the OP is asking in reference to the speakers rather than "what is an ohm".

I will take a quick stab at a generalized explanation to save Marv's fingers. This is my understanding, tear me apart if necessary:

The ohm load of a speaker is important due to the resistance relationship between the amp and the speaker. A speaker with a lower ohm resistance will draw/can utilize more wattage from an amp.

For instance, if I have an amp that is 1000 watts stable at 1 ohm, then I can wire up a sub with a 1ohm resistance and grab all that. If my sub has more resistance, say 2 ohm, then I would theoretically only be able to use 500 watts.

This gets us into voice coils. All you really need to know is that it gives you more than one set of speaker terminals to clip on to. By wiring the speaker in parallel or series, you can change the resistance of the sub to better match the relationship to your amp. Speaking in terms of wattage, for a large amp and a small sub, it may be beneficial to increase the ohm resistance of the sub.

Also note that the lower the resistance, the harder it is for the amp. That doesn't mean it's unsafe, it's just harder to achieve (read: a 1 ohm stable amp will cost more than an amp that's only 4 ohm stable).



Back in the day I would go down the the stereo shop and the salesman would swoon over dual voice coils. They got real mad when I went with a cheaper 4ohm single. I've always kind of wondered if there's any benefit to that whole voice coil deal - if I have two single coil 4 ohm subs , is that the same deal as one dual coil sub at 2 ohms?

 

LOL myself on that one!

That's the complicated answer direct from the book and the hopefully easy to understand answer is generally speaking the lower the impedance the more power that speaker will pull from most amps (as long as the amp is stable at that impedance). You will typically see in amp specs that they will show power ratings at a certain loads ie 400 watts at 4 ohms or 800 watts at 2 ohms etc. Different voice coil configurations allow you to easier match speakers to amps so you can get the optimal performance from them.

 

You type faster than I do and nice job! I once got into a little debate with the manager at CC over the benefit of dual voice coils. His explanation was that they "sound better" if you wire one coil to each channel of a 2 channel amp in stereo! BTW, the actual major benefit of dual voice coils is to allow you more wiring options.

 

Oh while we are talking about it, what's the deal with 6 ohm subs? I've never heard of an amp wanting 6 or 3 ohms..

 

so u can wire 3 of them in parallel to get a 2 ohm load. i have a jl box with 3 12 ohm 10's in it for a 4 ohm load.

 

There you have it!

 

3 subs be crazy talk, no wonder I didn't think about it.

Then again, someone tried selling me two 18"s for my Accord

 

I guess i ass-u-me-d that the OP could understand some basic division but.. who knows thanks for dumb'n it down for us simple folk!

 

Now that wasn't needed. Marv knows his stuff and he's able to put it in non-tech speak. That's a good thing!

 

Keep in mind the lower your final impendence the more current draw of the amp, the hotter it will run, more stress on the amps so possiibly shorter life, and everytime you halve the impedence you also halve the dampening factor as well. Simple explanation of dampening factor: control over the speaker. Some of the "budget" amps I have seen and heard just sound "sloppy" at lower impedences because they "lose control" of the speaker. More power from lower impedences is seldom desirable from my experience especially when it causes things like more current draw than your capable of providing. my $.02

 

I apologize if what i said was offensive. I meant nothing demeaning by my statement, I was simply responding to this
"That's the complicated answer direct from the book"
Because as far as I'm concerned that is NOT a complicated answer, I was assuming that people would hopefully be able to read and complete simple arithmetic.

 

Oh my god it's a Sociologist

uhh-ohh I've been discovered
i would say im an "introverted" type
ok i played along how about you?

 

how did you get the ohm symbol on here? cant find that key on my keyboard anywhere?

 

hey! no fair i dont have those keys!lol

 

Or you could do it the engineer's way and type ALT + 234