So I'm pretty new to car audio and am having trouble understanding ohms and what works with what and so on. But I just bought an Ultimate T3-10.3DVC (Ultimate Sound) and I'm not sure what kind of amp i need to run it at full power. And for those of you who don't want to click the link here are the specs:

Size: 10" (254mm)
Power Rms: 300w
Power Max: 600w
Surround: rubber
Cone: woven fiber
non-pressed paper
Impedance: 3 ohms dual voice coil
Voice Coil: 2" KSV (50.8mm)
Terminal: binding post
Basket: cast aluminium
Magnet: 60oz strontium ferrite
Frequency Response: 20hz - 600hz
Sensitivity: 86db

Every car-audio-educated person i talk to seems to be shocked when i tell them it is 3 ohms... but i can get a deal on an Alpine MRP-M450(Alpine Electronics of America, Inc.) or M650 (Alpine Electronics of America, Inc.) and one guy i know says that the 450 should work fine. So i'm just wondering what you guys think. Thanks.

 

So you need an amp that will be stable at 2 ohms mono, the 450 or 650 will be fine, you won't get the max potential from the amp but it will still put out quite a bit of power. Even a 4 ohm stable amp could do the job but on very hot summer days, it could heat up quite a bit and maybe go into protection (don't want to do that very often because eventually, it could fry some components). The 450 will be the most you want to put on that sub, the 650 would be overkill and could damage the sub if overdriven. If you decide to go with the 650, might want to add another one of those subs to your system.

Hope this helps.

 

I don't get the 3 ohm dvc. That stuff is wack. How do ya get 2 ohms from two 3 ohms???

 

well you could always run 6 of them parallel and hook it up to an 1800 watt amp...that should make some noise!

 

I aslo have a 3ohm DVC Ultimate sub... rated for 1000rms.. the best bet for this sub would be a 1000rms at 1ohm amp... it could be ran at 1.5 ohm and pull 750+ rms.. so for the above listed sub, is that 300rms per coil or 300rms for both? if the amp is only 2ohm stable then you can run it in stereo... but you won't pull the 2ohm power... so now that I think about it.. if you had an amp that put out 100rms at 4ohm (x2) or 200rms at 2ohm (x2) then you could efficiently give it 150rms per coil... providing that each coil is 150rms... if it was 300rms per coil.. then find a 2 channel amp that puts out 400rms at 2ohm (x2) and 200rms at 4ohm (x2) and it will give each coil 300rms... thats my 2cents... and personally I don't get the reasoning behind the 3ohm coils.. but there are plenty of ways to give it the power it wants, though you're not going to be using all the available power from the amp...

 

alright awesome. thanks for the input, guys.

 

You don't....unless you want to run 3 subs for some reason.....there were a few companies that tried the dual 6ohm driver configuration as well......

Personally I've never understood why they bother....right now I am running 3 8ohm JL subs in my wife's van at a 2.66ohm net load. Now if they were 3ohm DVC drivers wired to exactly 2ohms, how much more power would they get from the same amp??....and would I be able to hear the difference?....probably not.

The odd impedance values don't make much sense to me in a sub, but I do like the 2 or 3ohm component and coax sets. It's cool being able to get the most you can out of a 4 channel amp without having to figure out how to put 2 sets of speakers in a door or a back deck.....

HTH