4ohm speakers to 2 ohms
Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: Car Audio
Forum Discription: Car Stereos, Amplifiers, Crossovers, Processors, Speakers, Subwoofers, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=46851
Printed Date: May 14, 2025 at 7:37 AM
Topic: 4ohm speakers to 2 ohms
Posted By: tim98
Subject: 4ohm speakers to 2 ohms
Date Posted: January 04, 2005 at 4:45 AM
Ok this is my firt time posting. I did a search and could not find exactly what i was looking for. Heres the deal I have 2 kenwood 12 in single coil 4 ohm subs. my amp is a 1000watt kenwood x520 https://www.kenwoodusa.com/product/product.jsp?productTypeId=11&sortBy=price&productid=2425# it has a feature called "2 ohm stable". Now my question is can i hook up my subs in parrallel to equal a two ohm load and just hook it up to one channel (left or right) ......OR...... should i just hook up one speaker to the left channel and one speaker to the right channel. Which one of these would be the best and what would the pros and cons be of each. Thanks for any help you guys can provide
Replies:
Posted By: wheelerdr
Date Posted: January 04, 2005 at 6:29 AM
yes you can do that with this ampbut it will still only give you 90 per sub so it is best run one sub to each channel and only get 90 per sub either way.
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Posted By: jeffchilcott
Date Posted: January 04, 2005 at 6:35 AM
or you could wire each sub in series to get 8 ohms and bridge on the amp to get 4. That will give you 180watts per sub
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Posted By: stevdart
Date Posted: January 04, 2005 at 10:30 AM
Jeff...grab a cup of coffee. lol The amp outputs 360 watts with a 4 ohm bridged load but wiring two SVC 4 ohm woofers in series is a total 8 ohm load. That's 90 watts per sub either way you do it. I would use the bridged way rather than one sub on each channel.
Posted By: Ravendarat
Date Posted: January 04, 2005 at 2:02 PM
Ya man, I know the whole deal about how the amp will see half the mathamatical load such as an 8 ohm sub load will look like 4 ohms to the amp, but the amps are all rated assuming you are looking at the sub load not the amp load. Hence when an amp says it will do 360 x1 at 4 ohms its talking about sub load not amp load.
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double-secret reverse-osmosis speaker-cone-induced high-level interference distortion, Its a killer
Posted By: stevdart
Date Posted: January 04, 2005 at 4:04 PM
I'm not following you on that, Ravendarat. I would think a load is a load, whether it's called amp load or sub load. IMO, the easiest way to figure it is to use the amp's bridged output rating (not the _ X 2 stereo rating)....know what your sub total load impedance is....and go from there. If your subs wire up to 4 ohms, you've matched the rating. So bridge it. If they wire to 8 ohms, the amp will output half the rating. Bridge the subs. If they wire to 2 ohms...oops, you've let out the smoke  (when bridged to most two channel amps, that is...)
Posted By: Ravendarat
Date Posted: January 04, 2005 at 9:07 PM
Its just what I have been told before. I was always told that an amp se's half the load of the subs. so if the sub is a single 4 ohm and you have one then the samp will actually see half. This is something I never fully understood but have told this is so many times over.
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double-secret reverse-osmosis speaker-cone-induced high-level interference distortion, Its a killer
Posted By: tim98
Date Posted: January 06, 2005 at 10:00 AM
So you think the best way for me to hook these up is to wrie the subs up in series and bridged to the amp. This is my first vehicles with subs in it. Do you think they are going to hit pretty good, or is the eight ohms going to be too much for this amp to get any good sound out of my 12's
Posted By: DYohn
Date Posted: January 06, 2005 at 10:15 AM
Ravendarat wrote:
Its just what I have been told before. I was always told that an amp se's half the load of the subs. so if the sub is a single 4 ohm and you have one then the samp will actually see half. This is something I never fully understood but have told this is so many times over.
An amplifier "sees" exactly the load placed on it. Amplifiers produce voltage. The voltage is dropped across the resistance (in this case, impedence) contained in the circuit, producing current flow. Since amplifiers can produce only so much voltage, whatever impedence is connected to an amplifier determines how much current will flow. The confusion you are describing is when you connect two amplifiers together, commonly called "bridging." When bridging, you are forcing two amplifiers to act as one. In effect, the sum of their voltages is dropped across the total impedence load. So, if a 4-ohm load is placed onto two amplifiers operating together, each amp will "see" or operate into half that load, or two ohms. They share the total load equally. Does this make sense? ------------- Support the12volt.com
Posted By: tim98
Date Posted: January 11, 2005 at 1:16 AM
Ok so basically is it safe to hook up my two 4ohm speakers in parallel to create 2 ohms. then bridge the spaekers to my amp.
Posted By: stevdart
Date Posted: January 11, 2005 at 5:26 AM
The answers looked pretty clear to me....you can't bridge 2 ohm load onto this amp. When a two channel amp is 2 ohm stable, the meaning is that each of the two channels can be 2 ohms. Bridging connects the two channels, and connect means to parallel, which puts half the load onto each channel. So the amp would have to be 1 ohm stable to bridge a 2 ohm load onto it. To use this amp for subs and get the most output, trade out your current subs for models that will combine to create a total 4 ohm impedance....such as two DVC 4 ohm subs. Or get a different type of amp. A class D mono amp is one channel, and you can combine the two subs you have and use that type.
Posted By: kfr01
Date Posted: January 11, 2005 at 2:04 PM
Stevdart hit the nail on the head, imo.
I'd only like to add that I wouldn't get your undies in a bundle about getting max wattage out of your amp. Frankly, anything over a couple hundred watts, on all but very inefficient woofers, is more than enough for daily driving at non-hearing loss levels.
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Posted By: tim98
Date Posted: January 12, 2005 at 1:06 AM
sounds good guys. thanks for the help
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