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-   -   ohm (https://www.caraudioforumz.com/general-discussion-10/ohm-5146/)

dantheman 11-30-2003 09:34 PM

hey can someone tell me wat ohm stands for?

Xiph0id 11-30-2003 10:03 PM

It doesn't stand for anything it is the word.

OHM. Thats it!

X

2 8's AKA Jeepbeats 12-01-2003 01:46 AM

OHM. The unit of measurement of electrical resistance. The resistance of a circuit in which a potential difference of one volt produces a current of one ampere.

Chadxton 12-01-2003 06:20 AM

It's fun just to repeat the word over and over again. ohmohmohmohmohm. hahaha

Tzu 12-01-2003 01:44 PM

can someome point me to a website that explains ohms? i dont get it

Paul Niwranski 12-01-2003 01:56 PM

Try this for a definition and an explanation:
http://www.ohmslaw.com/ohmslaw.htm

avtar5.0 12-01-2003 02:58 PM

The most sacred syllable,the first sound of the almighty. The sound from which emerger each and every other sound, whether of bass music or of language........ OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.......

dantheman 12-01-2003 06:40 PM

no i mean like what does ohm do?

abnormal72 12-01-2003 07:03 PM


Originally posted by JeepBeats:
OHM. The unit of measurement of electrical resistance. The resistance of a circuit in which a potential difference of one volt produces a current of one ampere.
one more time

geolemon 12-01-2003 07:39 PM


Originally posted by dantheman:
no i mean like what does ohm do?
An ohm is a unit of measure.
Resistance against current flow.

"Ohms law" states:
voltage = current x resistance

Voltage is just "potential energy", essentially.
Like a car battery, sitting on a shelf.
It's got potential to do "work".. but without a circuit to do work through (and "loads" in that circuit), nothing will happen, no current will flow...
Current is the actual "kinetic energy" if you will.

You have your voltage source, and you have your circuit...
In the case of car audio -
Your amplifier is your voltage source, and your speaker has a certain amount of resistance (or, since an audio signal is AC electricity, we call it "impedance").
You hook wires up between the amp and the subwoofer, to create a circuit, between the amp's + and - terminals, with the speaker being the resistive "load" on that voltage source.

Per ohms law up there:
Voltage = current x resistance.
and with a little manipulation, you get:
current = voltage / resistance
Another one to know is:
Power is voltage x current.

OK.. to get started-
Our amplifier is essentially a constant voltage source (well, it really varies up and down, with our volume knob ;) ).
So we have some number for voltage.. higher wattage amps will have higher voltage numbers (given that they are stable to the same impedance). It's a constant.

So we can calculate current using formula #2 up there.
You'll note that as you hook up lower impedance speakers, you'll make more current flow in the circuit.
And we can easily then calculate power, once we know current, using formula #3. :cool:

Example:
Let's say we had an amplifier that was a 20v source for our speakers.
If we hooked up a 4 ohm subwoofer to it:
current = 20 / 4 = 5 amps of current
power = 20 * 5 = 100 watts

If we hooked up a 2 ohm subwoofer to it:
current = 20 / 2 = 10 amps of current
power = 20 * 10 = 200 watts

If we hooked up a 1 ohm subwoofer to it:
current = 20 / 1 = 20 amps of current
power = 20 * 20 = 400 watts

You'll see that every time you cut the impedance in half, the amplifier will double it's power..
Not because voltage changes, but because more current naturally flows through a lower impedance.

"So hey! I'll just run the lowest impedance I can, and get MONSTER POWER out of my amp!"
It doesn't work that way. ;)
The actual limits of much of the componentry inside amplifiers is actually rated in terms of how much current can flow through it.
When current flows through a component, heat is generated... and if too much heat is generated, the componentry will melt.
Which is why you'll see amps are only "stable" down to a certain impedance.

Try to run the amp any lower, trying to wring more power out of the amp, and it'll go up in smoke.

Also, you can wire subwoofers (or voice coils - some subs have more than 1 to play with) in series (into one, out the other side, into the next, out the other side), or in parallel (jumper wires connecting all the + together, and all the - together).

When you wire subs in parallel, you'll reduce the impedance that the amp sees, by a factor of how many subs you are parallelling (never mix impedances of subs together!).

When you wire subs in series, the total impedance is the sum of the impedances of all the subs (again, never mix impedances).

Hope that helps you understand what an Ohm "is"...


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