So another question requiring technical expertise from some amazing minds. I know you are around here.
So if an amp has a signal to noise ration of >100db at typical industry standards at 4ohms and the harmonic distortion of the amp is very low as well how much will the quality of sound drop when it is run in one ohm mode? Yes I realize that most people can not tell a great deal of difference from .1% THD vs. 1% especially with subwoofers. However will I completely destroy the quality if the amp I am using?
Thanks guys - fabrication of fiberglass boxes/amp racks starts tomorrow. Wish me luck.
Ya know Alexander Graham Bell? Well, he determined that the human ear is the WORST listening device ever....reality is the human ear cannot easily percieve distortion until it reaches about 5% overall.
So the reality is (distortion aside) you won't hear the difference. Especially in lower frequencies.
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You are correct in that you probably won't be able to hear the distortion from the amplifier in a car audio subwoofer system (unless the amplifier is overdriven). The subwoofer will completely dominate the distortion you will hear.
As a bit of interesting information, I've heard music played with .1% distortion that sounded aweful, while the same song played with 10% distortion sound really good. Total harmonic distortion is a bit misleading in that certain harmonics sound more harsh to us than others. Dr. Earl Geddes has done some great research in the subjectiveness of distortion and used to provide those audio files on his website. Check out www.gedlee.com for some great information on this subject.
Well based on the above information I will go with 1 ohm setup I believe. One question though. I have never been to an SQ competition and do not know how they are judged - can anyone fill me in. I am not planning on going into one at this point but it would neat if I could keep my options open. (All my gear is designed for SQ application by the way).