Alright, so I am hoping to get an eD 13AV.2, and of course thats D2. So I was trying to think about this...I was thinking about getting a Hifonics Brutus Bxi 1608D amp. rated at 1600rms at 1 ohm. Yeah yeah, 'hifonics is junk' i know its overrated, so im guessing it will actually push out 1400. which is fine. With the stock electrical in a 2008 nissan altima coupe 3.5se [its either 90 or 110 amp alternator, not entirely sure] would everything be ok? I wont have the gain up all the way, so it will prolly be pushing like 1250-1300rms. Guessing. But what different does the ohm load make on a battery? or does it any? I was reading something and to my understanding, 4ohms pulls less current from the battery meaning it wouldnt kill the battery as fast? or is that completly off or not true at all...any insight would be great. thanks
seems to me, if the amp gain is set in a certain spot..that you amp is gonna put out what it's gonna put out...(depending on available current,of course) how much power that translates to (to your sub) depends on what ohm load to have them wired too. just a thought..
Ohm is a measure of resistance from the driver. The higher the ohm load the more resistance = less power pulled.
Think of it like a faucet. Open it a little and the pressure in the pipes in your house don't notice. Open it full and your sis taking a shower screams. That's what a battery goes through. If you decrease the water flow at the faucet (resistance), the less affect it has on the battery. Open full(less resistance), the more current draw and unless you have an adequate charging system your lights dim similar to the lower cold water pressure making your sister in the shower scream.
In a nutshell it's what Makaveli said only I wanted to use the sis in a shower analogy.
That was what I thought. But my next and inital question is, if you have 1200w rms at 1ohm vs. 1200w rms at 4ohm on a bigger amp. will the battery be drained the same amount? or less using the 4 ohm load.
A watt is a watt. Bottom line. Yet how you achieve those watts is what you should consider. Lowering the ohms to get it means quite a lot of things.
C/P from Glasswolf's site:
"Power Ratings
Two amplifiers with the same power rating put out the same power, right? Not necessarily. Manufacturers vary as to how conservatively they rate their amplifiers. As an example, I measured one particular amplifier, rated at 350 watts/channel, and found it actually was able to put out 450 watts/channel! Manufacturers often understate what their units will actually putout. It would be a bad idea to publish the "absolute maximum power" that the unit could put out, since a margin needs to be allowed to insure that all production units will meet published specs. In addition, a manufacturer may publish a very conservative 4 ohm rating in order to make the 2 ohm rating look better (a really terrible amplifier will put out LESS power into a 2 ohm load!).
Amplifiers are generally rated in watts per channel , at several load impedances, with both channels driven, over a frequency range of usually 20 Hz - 20,000 Hz, at some amount of total harmonic distortion. Most amplifiers will put out slightly more (but not a tremendous amount more) power when only a single channel is driven. This occurs because the power supply only has to provide power for a single channel, and its DC voltage doesn't sag as much. The exception is amplifiers which use dual independent power supplies (since each of their supplies only has to supply power for one channel anyway).
A word on speakers is in order. All speakers have a characteristic known as impedance (measured in ohms), with most speakers being either 8 ohms, 4 ohms or 2 ohms. Lower impedances represent more difficult loads for amplifiers to drive. Two 4 ohm speakers connected in parallel will result in a 2 ohm load at the amplifier. And, two 2 ohm speakers(wired in parallel) result in a 1 ohm load. In actuality, speaker impedance can vary by a factor of 10 or more over the audio frequency range. When a speaker is said to be 8 ohms, it is understood that this is a nominal or approximate rating (the same goes for 4 ohm speakers). An 8 ohm speaker could have an impedance as low as 2 or 3 ohms and as high as 50 ohms (impedance is frequency dependent)! Further, a speaker load is not the same as a resistive load, speakers are reactive loads. A reactive load is a load that has inductive or capacitive properties. Depending upon the input signal frequency, speaker loads may be resistive or resistive with an inductive or capacitive component. Without going into a ton of technical explanation, what this means is that speakers are often difficult loads for amplifiers to drive. Driving difficult speaker loads is where better amplifiers are separated from lesser designs.
Even though an amplifier may be rated for continuous use at 2 ohms, there are several reasons why this is not the best thing to do:
Paralleled speaker loads may be lower than you think: As stated before, the actual impedance varies and the minimum impedance may dip considerably below 2 ohms at certain frequencies. Lower impedance loads mean more losses and more heat dissipation in the amplifier (see next item).
Heat Considerations: Operating an amplifier with a low impedance load increases the heat dissipation of the amplifier (try it if you don't believe it!). This is because low impedance loads require more current, which taxes the amplifier's power supply more severely. More current means more losses(which translates to more heat). Excessive heat is unhealthy for electronic devices and should be avoided.
Increased Line Losses: As the speaker impedance is lowered, more of the audio signal is lost (in the form of heat) in the speaker cables! This can become significant if you run long cables. Speaker wires have resistance (the value depends on the thickness and length of the cable); if the speaker impedance becomes very low the resistance of the speaker wire may no longer be insignificant. To prevent this problem, the cross sectional area of the speaker cable conductor must double for each halving of speaker load impedance! In other words, running 2 ohm loads means using VERY heavy speaker cables."
If it's the same power why chance damaging your system with all the excess heat a lower 2ohm load produces unless you can't afford the larger 4ohm amp?
I see. So would it be more effiecient and safer to run a 2 channel X 600rms @ 2 ohm vs 1 channel X 1200 @ 1 ohm? for this particular sub that is [eD 13Av.2]. I know I dont have the money to find something that pushes enough power at 4 Ohm, and I figure I would push somewhere along the lines of 1200-1400rms. Was looking at Hifonics bxi1608d, surely it would push at least 1300. Keep in mind that I dont want to change my alt or do electrical upgrades.
So... 1 channel X 1200rms @ 1 ohm or... 2 channel X 600rms @ 2 ohm
wouldnt the 2 channel be more effiecient? i mean, it is safe to run a 1 channel to one coil and the other channel to the same coil, right?
I know about parallel and series wiring, and i wasnt saying hooking up 1 channel to 2 coils. i was saying...
get a 2 channel amp that can run 600rms at 2 channels putting out a 2 ohm load per each channel. hook ONE channel of the amp to ONE coil of the sub. hook the OTHER channel of the amp to the OTHER channel of the coil.
Can that be done? to my understanding that can.
i see my last post wasnt easily readable, but maybe now its understood what im saying.
A single DVC sub is meant to be driven by one channel wired by one of ^^^ those means.
You're asking for trouble separating the coils or driving only one. Get yourself a nice monoblock amp that does what you need or a bridgeable two channel. (Either at 1ohm or 4ohm). Remembering what was said earlier.
It can be done, but you would be better off running the amp bridged. If your amp does 600w x2 @ 2 ohms, it should do 1200W x1 @ 4 ohms. So wiring the sub @ 4 ohms bridged would be easier.
A mono amp (class D in this case) will be more efficient than a 2 channel (a/b circuitry) amplifier.
