so latley there have been a lot of Q?'s on Ohms....i read 2 responses for the questions both posted by respected members with plenty of post and they were completly the opposite of eachother....the subject was SQ....is there a difference between 4ohm sq and 1 ohm sq??????? i always thought that 4 ohm sounded better than 2 or 1 ohm cuz thats what i was told.....SOMBODY GIVE US THE TRUTH ABOUT OHMS!!!!!!
yeah I dont think you notice a difference as far as from 4ohm to 1ohm, it just doesnt seem like there would be an audible difference that you could make out. I dont know though.
There is a slight difference but it is not noticeable to the naked ear. 4 ohms is better for the amp since it does not have to work as hard but as long as the amp is running at an impedance that it is designed to, then there wont be a problem.
Ok heres to clear this up.... Mr. Rob, you are wrong. 4 ohms will draw as much as 1 ohm amplifiers. Amplifiers are designed to put out certain ohm levels either (a.) to match their companies subwoofers or (b.) Many audiophiles believe 2 ohm amplifiers are of better build quality which is also true. An amplifier designed to take a 1 ohm load will put out its rated power with no problems, but an amplifier with a higher ohm load (say 2 or 4 ohms) will run cooler and sometimes will have a lower THD percentage. The reason that this rule doesnt apply anymore is because many companies have figured out a way to make their amps more efficient by using new technologies. It is true that 2 and 4 ohm amplifiers are somewhat better of build quality than 1 ohm amps. One way to see this is look how most 1 ohm amps are smaller than 2 and 4 ohm amps. The Kicker ZX2500.1 is a great example. It is huge compared to the Orion 2500d or other amps rated at 1 ohm. Also damping factor is higher at higher resistance loads, this usually doesnt effect the subwoofer much unless its a cheap amp brand vs. top of the line (like 50 damping factor vs 1000).
So YES, higher ohm loads are better, BUT new technologies and alot of other factors have changed this to make all amplifiers sound about the same.
You can make a play that it can have something to do with the sub and how things are wired (for some inductance reasons)... but thats not the issue.... Doesnt matter. If you have the proper amp for either a 4 Ohm or 1 Ohm load, the D2 sub wired either way will sound the same. Its not that you wire in series for SQ and parallel for SPL ;) No difference in sound.
Really it doesnt matter if the amp is designed to work properly into a specific load. As mentioned above damping factor can be an issue... but I highly doubt it will come into play. I havent noticed it With most class D amps you have a low damping factor anyway and this is more of an amp class topology discussion than specific impedance for the sub used.
As I just mentioned in another post too... and as aLeX mentioned above, current draw from the vehicles electrical system is the same for the same ouput be it to a 4 Ohm or 1 Ohm load if the amp is 100% efficient (making this assumption because you can design the amp to be a little more or less efficient at any specific load and output). People seem to confuse the amps current draw and operating voltage with the rated power to the speakers... two differnt things. With a 100% efficient amp (and that simply isnt going to happen but it makes the point much easier than getting into amp design specifics) if the amp has the ability to put 1000W into a 4 Ohm or 1 Ohm load... it is really only pulling 83.3 amps at 12V for your cars electrical system. But what it is doing differently is how it converts DC to AC... with the 4 Ohm load at 1000W it is running at 63.25V at 15.8 Amps. At 1 Ohm at 1000W it is running at 31.6 V at 31.6 Amps. Same "power" different load and therefore different current and voltage.
With most class D amps you have a low damping factor anyway and this is more of an amp class topology discussion than specific impedance for the sub used.