Ohms affect sound? Yes or no?
 

I don't know a whole lot on car audio so I was wondering if the ohms of the subwoofer affected the sound?
For example, I just bought one 10"W6 dual voice coil, and going to power it with a 500/1. The sub can be wired in series @ 8ohms or parallel @ 2ohms. Would wiring the sub one way vs the other have any affect on the sound?

This should be good....:laugh:


Seriously though, some people swear up and down they can hear a difference, others will trot out double blind tests showing otherwise.

Certain members here (Sasha comes to mind) have very, very discerning ears, and almost abnormal hearing, so I would hesitate to say "NO". Just because i cant hear it, doesn't mean its not there.

John

I can't hear it either.

My bet is that you will hear a big difference because you will get significantly less power out of the amp at 8ohms...

(I'd definatly run it at 2ohms!)

At subwoofer frequencies it would not sound better either way, only louder at 2 ohms. At high frequencies the series inductance might come into play but that's of no concern here. This of course assumes your amplifier will drive a 2 ohm load without significantly more distortion (which is usually the case these days). Provided your amp is designed for it I'd wire for 2 ohms to get the most power. :smokin:

It's all about the amp, some amp will have a higher THD at lower impedance, for mid/high under 0,1% is acceptable, for subs under 1% is fine also. Like John__Taylor said there's always some exception. Also, sound deadening will help tremendously improving the overall sound quality by eliminating rattle and resonance.

Sometimes I miss the forest for the trees.

You make an excellent point, and in fact that may have been his REAL question, re-reading it, he could mean sound quality or "sound" as in volume. I just ASSumed he meant SQL.

John

The amp will make the only significant difference, but can anyone hear it? My opinion wont be popular but I say no.

Here we go...........:laugh:

It's the off season. Gotta stir things up. ;)