looking at buying a amp what are the advantages and disadvantages of powering it at 2ohms instead of 4 ohms

 

Stereo or sub amp?

 

I've found no disadvantages to date. I previously had everything running at 4 ohms, even 8 ohms years ago. SQ is as good and it's cheaper to get the same amount of power at 2 ohms as opposed to 4.

 

powering speakers

4 of them

 

I never had experience with running cabin speakers lower than 4 ohms. It cannot be too bad, I guess, cause I have seen 2 ohm Image Dynamics Chameleons, and I presume they sound pretty good.

 

most amps now aday put out 2 and 4 ohms but most speakers are 4 ohms unless you want to add a pair of tweets or a 3 way set to bring them down abit to 2 ohm. Its more of control then it is to SQ but others may thing differently

 

as i have never done back to back comparisson, dont quote me.

but in theory, i believe this to be true.

the higher the ohm load, the better control the amp has on the speaker. for instance say an amp has a rated damping (control of cone movement) of 200@1khz @ 4 ohms. but it would be (guessing) 100@1khz @ 2 ohms.

however, keep in mind that the 4 ohm load, would also have a progressively lower damping as the frequency goes lower. and a progressively higher damping as the frequency goes higher. likewise with the 2 ohm load.

now, that being said, speakers impedance varies with every millisecond of music anyways during a song.

so 2 ohm or 4 ohm would only have to do with power output really, because anywhere in the real world you are never going to be able to hear a difference, because the difference from a damping factor of 100 to a damping factor of 1000 is not audible to the human ear. only test instruments. and even the we're talking less then hundredths of a second in delay from the time the sound is input to the amp to the time the speaker makes it.

so really....whichever way u want to go is just fine. just match up to your speakers

 

Very minor difference other than how much current an amp draws,I run at the lowest a 4 ohm load in my system but would go lower if i could double my power.