i read the faq and understood everything but the part about tuning your amp.....i want my subs to put out to their full potential...i also dont understand the significance of ohms and wat the difference is between 2 and 4

Tuning an amp refers to setting the gain (distortion) level. Turn your system up the whole way and then adjust the gain knob until you start to hear distortion, then back it down to where the distortion disapears. Do this a couple times until you can identify the exact position of the knob where the distortion disapears and your gain will be set. Also, some amps have built in crossovers. If you are using this for your subs than you will want to set the crossover to low-end. I'm assuming based on these questions that you do not have an eq or x-over, just an amp and subs.

Ohms are resistance across the voice coil of your speaker. Car audio usually comes in 2 ohm or 4 ohm speakers. 2 ohm = more resistance = more power produced by your amp to make the speaker work = much louder; if your amp is rated to handle 2 ohm loads. You can see this on the box or in the manual that the 2 ohm ratings are more powerful than the 4 ohm ratings.





^CLICK ME TO SEE HOW I BUILT EVERYTHING^ How To in Interior Forum

ok...that helped a lot...thanks

just to avoid confusion, 2 ohms is actually less resistance than 4 ohm, so 2 ohm allows more currnt flow than 4.






its really a shame that being stupid doesn't hurt more

Not exactly. I double checked to see if I was incorrect and this is what Rob Hephner himself said about the subject:



Does a 2 ohm load represent more resistance or less resistance than a 4 ohm load?

Quote:

More, it is a harder load for the amplifier to push.

Here is a good explanation.
Speaker Impedance Explained

- Car Sound & Performance Forums.






^CLICK ME TO SEE HOW I BUILT EVERYTHING^ How To in Interior Forum

it is a good explanation, especially since it backs up what i said originally.

the the lower the impedance, the less resistance the current flowing from the amp has...

2 ohm is a lower impedance than 4 ohm, therefore there is less resistance to current






its really a shame that being stupid doesn't hurt more

ohms have an inverse proportion to wattage. at all levels you will have the same voltage but your watts to ohms may be different. an amp will be stable at a certain ohm load, meaning that it can have that ohm load or higher. so, say your amplifier can put out 1000W at 1Ω. it will theoretically put out 500W at 2Ω, 250W at 4Ω, and 125W at 8Ω. so if you have an amp that is stable at 1Ω you are of course going to want to have your subwoofers wired up as close to 1Ω as possible to maximize output. but in short, 2Ω is less resistance than 4Ω.

chris

"I did it because I wanted to see what it would look like. You should be greatful that I even told you that it would look good. If your to dumb to use photoshop and change the color of your own car then you don't need to see it changed. I'm not going to give my work away. I'll sell the pic to you though for $15."-Adam Kalin

^^JBO is about not being that guy

It's actually less resistance. With less resistance, more current can flow, wattage goes up. That's why when you go from 4 ohm to 2 ohms with an amp that can handle it you double the power because there is less resistance.

That makes more sense. Years ago it was explained to me like wire gauge; the smaller the number the more there is. Which maybe I misunderstood they were referring to power instead of resistance.





^CLICK ME TO SEE HOW I BUILT EVERYTHING^ How To in Interior Forum

I thought I understood this 2 days ago.....
Anyhow it seems that professional installers are wrong as well on the other site, as there is a discussion about what I thought was merely a remedial question.

Rob Hephner wrote:
Impedance is the resistance that an electrical component, such as a speaker, offers to the flow of current. It is measured in Ohms. It restricts the current flow within a circuit to a specific amount at a specific frequency. This component is commonly known as a Load.

2 Ohms is more of a load than 4 Ohms, thus it offers more resistance.

....

2 Ohms is Increased resistance, thus requires more current to move.

The resistance does not allow more current flow, it requires more current to move the load. The bigger the load, the more power it takes to move.

The number goes down, which is what you are fixated on. Think golf scores!

0 is the most resistance you can have, as the numbers go up they represent less resistance.

-Car Sound & Performance forums
^ in case anyone wants to follow the discussion.






^CLICK ME TO SEE HOW I BUILT EVERYTHING^ How To in Interior Forum

I'm going to have to argue with their statement. They say 0 ohms is the most resistance you can have, and I say my amps are running 1/2 ohm. Holey crap I should be in a parallel universe. Let's take a simple 12 volt circuit and put 4 bulbs in series on it. We'll call that a 4 ohm load. Ok, they shine bright. Let's take away 2 bulbs, and we'll call that a 2 ohm load. Lights get brighter, there's less resistance since two of the bulbs are gone. Let's take one more away, we'll call that a 1 ohm load. Damn that's bright. There's half the resistance there.

i don't wuite understand how 0 ohmzs could be the most you can have, at 0 ohms you have a dead short and in turn NO resistance. test it wiht a multimeter, the most resistance you can is infinite, so in turn 2 ohms is less resitance than 4 ohms, plain and simple. this Rob Hephner guy sounds like he has no clue what he is talking about

The fewer ohms you have, the lower resistance. Period, end of conversation.

Impedance is a measurement of resistance in an AC circuit, and because your amplifier puts out an AC current, it is measured in Impedance. Impedance had to be created to measure resistance in an AC circuit because of the sinusoidal waves that an AC circuit creates. Each value of magnitude in an AC circuit also has an angle because of its sinusoidal properties. Resistors are always 0 degrees, inductors are 90 degrees and capacitors are -90 degrees. Voltage, current and impedance can have any angle.


Paying someone to install parts and bragging about it being fast, is like watching someone bang your wife and being proud to raise their kids.

AMEN!

is it just me or is tit kinda scary that theres people out there passing themselves off as professionals when they dont even have a grasp of basic electrical fundamentals?






its really a shame that being stupid doesn't hurt more

Tell me about it, but we were all there at one time.


Paying someone to install parts and bragging about it being fast, is like watching someone bang your wife and being proud to raise their kids.

true true, i can even remember when i was






its really a shame that being stupid doesn't hurt more

I pass myself off as a professional - play it off