Im lookin at gettin one 12in alpine Type S SWS sub. They offer it in a 2ohm or 4ohm load. Im thinkin that gettin the 2 ohm would be better cause i can get more power out of the amp. Is that correct?
thanks
ryan

 

Just match it up to what kinda amp you have. 2 if your amp is 2 ohm stable. 4 is your amp is 4 ohm stable.

 

I dont have an amp yet.I was wondering if it was better to have a 2ohm load than a 4ohm? Im still looking around for the amp but im pretty sure i want the alpine type s sub.

 

Hmm, better? Well let us back away from thinking this and first understand what is going on. Ohms, or the rating of impedance, or resistance, can play a few different roles when putting together a system.

If you are operating off of a mono amplifer directly tied to the battery, you have a lot of power channelled into one spot and going into one speaker. If your speaker (sub), is around 400 RMS watts, I would say 4 ohm resistance rating is fine. If you are running 3 15" Kicker Comps at 1000 Watts each, you need to supply a lot of constant juice over large bandwidth of power. Therefor 2 ohms would provide you are larger "pipeline" and will not generate a much as a load on your wiring (providing you chose the correct gadge). Also notice that with amp configurations, you might notice that lower the number of ohms, the more wattage. Typically this is because more power is available to work with.

But first what do you want. I have a 300x1 RMS, 500 max, 40 AMPS, Not sure the ohm rating, going to a cheap Bazooka 10" 600 watt max sub in a Q-Logic box, but for my music needs, it does exactly what I need. I need tight bass responce for rock and country music. I don't need a sub that would carry out long periods of bass blasts that test the excursion limits of the sub, much like rap music, techno, or anything else heavy with the bass levels that hover around the 40-60hz range. You need a good expensive sub to do this.

If you are buying a sub for quality and for loud rap music, do not buy anything smaller than a 12" sub. JL subs are the best in my opinion for anything. Do not get an Alpine E-Series from Circuit City. Recently, they have taken back a lot of subs that just bottom out so much from over-excursion and become damaged and then you will see them sold again as open box for real cheap. They looked so good for 30 dollars each over here! But, unfortunatly, they are crap. With Alpine, anything under R-Series is crap.

If you are going with a sub for rock music and don't really care about the quality, Bazooka or Pioneer are they ways to go, and nothing over 12" for this.

Either way, 4 ohm should be fine. If you are building a sweet system to show off, go with 2. Have a good one, and good luck. I hope you are having a good time with this!

 

to add onto what the gentleman posted here. lower ohm configuration produce more noise as well. Usually you will see a higher THD (total harmonic distortion) rating when you lower the ohm load the amp sees. just fyi. you may not be able to notice but it is there.

 

No, it is not better. You can't make a generalization like that. Everything depends on the capabilities of the amp. This is not magic. For example, if you want a set-up CAPABLE of 500wattsRMS, then buy properly matched equipment that will give you that CAPABILITY. You could have an amp rated@1000watts@4ohms and use an 8 ohm sub. It would be very easy on all the equipment involved. Read up on Ohm's Law and try to understand how an amp and speakers work. Read about power and dB and SPL and you will then understand that all this "ohms and watts" stuff is highly overrated when it comes to a system in a daily driver.
And, a good starting place for subwoofer system power is to be equal to the power of the "main" part of your system. That is, if you want a nice balance. That's why you see 5 channel amps that are rated like 50wattsx4(200watts total) and the 5th(subwoofer) channel will be about 200x1.

 

thanks guys and fyi i listen to pretty much all rap. csonka why do you think that the s series is crap and i was also looking at infinity kappa perfect series.

 

Ok, everyone is getting to technical. If you want to save money, get a 4 ohm one, stick it on a bridged 2 channel amp, and be done.

If you want something that generally works better, get the 2 ohm, get a mono amp, and be done. Of even get the 4 ohm one and say a mono amp puts out 250 watts at 4 ohm, if you ever want to upgrade, you can get something to run at 2 ohm and have about 500 watts.

I think what a lot of how to sites say about ohms is kinda misleading. Mainly the part about getting twice the power when halving the ohm load. Although it is true, depending on the amp, it can meslead a lot of beginers. Im not gonna say how its confusing becasue i dunno how to explain it, but I think it is just kinda mis leading.

One is not technically better than the other, its just what fits YOUR aplication.

If you want a mono amp for your sub, you can get either one.
If you want to use a 2 channel amp for your sub, about the only way to go is with a 4 ohm one.

Generally, the higher THD produced by dropping the ohm rating isnt audible. If it is, then just barely.

 

being relatively naive to alpine's line of subwoofer's, if the Type S subwoofers are considered "below" the Type R's (which I think is correct), then the statement about anything below Type R's is crap is far from accurate.

While having my custom box made, I heard a single 10" Type S hooked up to an alpine 300w amp absolutely pound in a 3000GT all dynamatted out. I was impressed! I doubt a show car built for sound by an audio business would put a "crap" subwoofer in their vehicles and try and impress people.

It swayed me to return my Kicker CompVR for the Type S...

 

thanks bartak1 and kars i think that i agree with you man

 

I follow Alpine equipment rather closely and carefully. I have bought and heard a lot of what they have available. What a great hobby!

I shouldn't have said it was crap, which was rather condescending. Let me put it this way though. If you take a Type R series speaker, either a subwoofer or speaker set, and have it next to one of a lower series, you will hear a difference. Especially, I hear a difference.

I tried out the Type S speakers for the rear channels of my pickup. Before then I had some Pioneers that I threw in and I could hear a little difference, better if anything. I then had the opportunity to try Alpine R Components in the front, and the difference really rocked my socks. I immediately exchanged those S series in the back for R series and rockin’ out never felt so good in that truck. The imaging, clarity, resolution, and response of the type R series speakers really put itself in its own higher upper class. With the E-series subs, well, again, I mentioned how there were a lot of problems. JL all the way for subs, in my own opinion.

If I was not so involved with testing alpine, Infinity Kappa series speakers, from all the varieties I have heard, take my breath away as well. Those are comparable, with my best judgment, to Alpine Rs.

Visit websites of all these manufacturers to see how much these are and to learn of the series line ups. Sometimes it IS tough to tell a difference from a $100 speaker than its own as a $300 dollar. But some are worth it and you can tell. You just have to go out there and try for yourself.

Might I recommend Infinity Reference of Alpine S series, if you ever need to choose so. And if you ever get the choice, component speakers over all-in-one.

Good luck!

 

I agree csonka that components do make a big difference in the clarity of music. I have the RF FanaticX components up front...wow what a difference!

I respect your response in the subwoofer discussion about the Type S subs. I may be swayed as well to the Type R's if you think that my RF 301S amp would match up well with it.

By my browsing, the Type S matches up perfectly. But if you think the power hungry Type R would still sound better on that 301S amp, I'm open to possibly changing my decision.

 

A Type S will work fine on your 301S, but if you have the money you might as well go with a Type R. Go for the 2004 and below models though. Your amp might kinda be starving a 2005 model.

 

quick question...where can one find last year's model type r's at?

 

Ebay is cheap, Ikesound might have them, thezeb maybe.

If you have an Alpine dealer around go there and ask them if they have any leftover 04 model ones. Most of the time they want to clear them out so you can usually get a deal too.