Rep Power: 334

im pretty new to the audio scene and after reading those links on the top of the ice forums, im still confused with "ohms" and other numbers. somebody give me a basic definition of what ohms are/is. is it like how many slots are in the amp/sub?

example:
amp
4 ohm mono: 600 x 1
2 ohm mono: 1200 x 1
1 ohm mono: 1800 x 1

sub
2000 watt rms
voice coil: 3" dual 2 ohm
operation: 1 OR 4 ohm


i need help figuring out what the bolded numbers mean..

 
Rep Power: 786

When you are referring to the amp rating, the 4 2 or 1 means the power it will produce at either a 4 2 or 1 ohm load. The ohm load that the amp has will be determined by how you wire the woofers. The x 1 is the number of channels. If an amp is 1800 x 1 @ 1 ohm mono, it will produce 1800 watts through 1 channel when presented with a 1 ohm load. The ohms are basically the resistance of electricity, and as you could imagine when you wire an amp for less resistance, simply put it allows more power to flow.

The voice coil size isn't really relevant to what you are doing, it's a more technical thing that the average consumer doesn't really have a need to care about. The dual 2 ohm specification means that the amp has 2 voice coils which are 2 ohms a piece. Speakers come in many configurations, single, dual or even triple or quadruple for a more extreme driver with resistances that can be anywhere from half an ohm up to 8 ohms or more.

But when you have a dual 2 ohm woofer, you have the option of wiring the voice coils of the driver in either series or parallel. With series wiring, the resistances add up, so wiring dual 2 ohm voice coils in series will give you 4 ohms. Wiring in parallel gives you the opposite effect and drops the resistance by half, therefore dual 2 ohm coils wired parallel will give you 1 ohm. That is why they say the operation can be either 1 or 4 ohm, because the voice coils can be wired in either series or parallel to come to one of those resistances.

Sorry that was a big long, but I hope it clears things up

 
Rep Power: 334

very helpful. thanks

now im confused how a sub can perform 1 OR 4 ohms or even 6/8. but ill eventally get it. thanks for the quick reply.

 
Rep Power: 310

http://www.jlaudio.com/tutorials/wiring/index.html

Check that out. It should be somewhat helpful.

 
Rep Power: 786

A sub can peform at 6 or 8 ohms if it is designed to. Yours isn't designed to, it is only able to be wired to 1 or 4 ohms.