i have a concept mono block amp and was planning to run 2 12'l5s with it. it is rated at 1200 watts at 1 ohm. i was planning on wiring the subs to give the amp that 1 ohm load and giving each sub its 600 rms watts. my question was will running the amp at 1 ohm have any drawbacks?? will it overheat as much as if it was at 2 ohms? what do you guys think??? is that good or does anyone have a alternate solution
It will put out more heat than a 2 ohm load would. Also, there will be more distortion and less headroom from the amplifier. You'll strain the amplifier more running it at 1 ohm than you would at 4 or 2 ohms. Really, I'm guessing your only option is a 1 or 4 ohm load, so your only other option would be a 2 channel bridged to a 4 ohm load, or a mono amp putting out 1200 watts at 4 ohm (very expensive, don't know any off the top of my head)
at 1 ohm you'll get more power. that's the up side. the down side is higher current draw, more heat, more distortion (relatively), less headroom, lower SNR, and worse damping factor. Basically you're working the amp at it's limits, and while it's capable of performing there, the power supply in the amplifier is being heavily taxed, and will have to work much harder. When you have an amp that can supply that much power at 2 ohms or better yet at 4 ohms, the amp will be more expensive, and larger, but it'll run cooler, and have more reserve power for responding to brief peaks in demand that can draw up to ten times the RMS power of the amp. Remember, if the amp can't handle these peak transient demands, your amp will clip. that will send DC voltage to the speakers which will cause the voice coils to overheat and damage them.
just something to keep in mind. it's a trade-off, as always.