chris's ws6

iTrader: (1)

Hi, I recently purchased a JL Audio stealthbox for my WS6. On the JL website it says the stealthbox is wired for 300 watts(RMS) at 4ohms. I was able to find an alpine MRV-M300 Amp for only 238.00 shipped. The amp is rated at 300 watts(RMS) at 2ohms. My question is, isn't there a way to wire the amp so it produces 4ohms. I thing the term is called "bridging". I was wondering, if the amp is wired to be used at 4ohms instead of 2ohms, will the originall 300 watts(RMS) be cut in half to 150 watts(RMS) or will it be doubled to 600 watts(RMS). In conclusion my question is can I use the amp at 4ohms instead of 2ohms and will it be able to supply the full 300 watts continually.

willinwtx

iTrader: (4)

no at 4 ohms that amp will put out 150 watts, to get 300 watts you need a speaker that is 2 ohms or a dual voice coil speaker rated at 4 ohms per coil then you could wire the amp down to two ohms and get the full 300 watts

Beeler422

iTrader: (3)

You just need to make sure your amp is stable down to 2 ohms.

IM LOWR

An amplifier does not have ohms, the speaker(or sub woofer) does. Typically the less ohms the more power(watts) the amp will produce - however, if you lower the ohm load(i.e. changing speakers or wiring differently), the quality of sound reproduction may suffer if you go too low. An amp you can buy at Best Buy or at a flea market may say it will put out 600watts but that 600w will be very 'un-controlled' and have alot of distortion. If I were you i would buy a JL 300/1 amp for your stealth box.

Snootch

iTrader: (3)

Hey Chris- Just figuresd i'd give ya a little information about amps and speakers. I used to install stereos professionally for a few years. The "Ohm" rating you see on speakers... This rating is basically the resistance value that the speaker "shows" the amplifier while the speaker is at rest. Watts, well this is a very subjective number that salespeople like to throw around. A watt is a number signifying power. If you divide a Voltage in a circuit by the current traveling through it, the number you come up with is your total power, measured in Watts. The reason you see cheap amps for $50 claiming 1000 output, and an expensive name-brand amp costing $500 but only advertising 450 Watts is beacuse the name brand amp is quoting the Watt measurment in it's RMS value, or think of RMS (Root Mean Square) as an average value, and the cheap amp's number as a peak value. Or you can look at it as the 450 watt amp is producing 450 watts RMS of "clean" power with very low distortion, versus the cheap amp's 1000 peak watts of 100% distortion. Distortion kills speakers. Finally, amplifiers will produce diffrent levels of output power depending on the load is placed on them. Let's take your amp for an example. It is stated on the box that the amp is capable of producing 300 Watts RMS of power at 2 ohms. This si the amount of clean power that will be produced if you wire a 2 ohm load to it. Also the amp will produce 150 watts with a 4 ohm load, 75 Watts with a 8 ohm load on it, and so on. The more power you make your amp produce by wiring lower resistance loads onto it, the higher distortion levels you will have though. Also All amps have their limit of how much power they will produce. Your amp appears to have a limit of 2 ohms. 300 Watts RMS is the most you are going to get out of that amplifier. Don't try to run the amp into a 1 ohm load! you will burn it up. Some amps are designed to run into very low resistances, like 1/4 ohm, but yours is not. Speaker wiring- Most car audio speakers come in a few varieties, 2 ohm, 4 ohm, and 8 ohm in a single voice coil type speaker. Also available are dual voice-coil, where two independant voice coils ate wound within the same speaker. they also come in dual 2 ohm, dual 4 ohm, dual 8 ohm, and some manufactirers produce dual 6 and 12 ohm voice coil woofers. The advantage of a dual voice coil is for applications such as yours. You have room for only 1 speaker, but you want to put as much power into it as possible. either you can: buy a 2 ohm single voice coil speaker, OR buy a dual 4 ohm voice coil speaker. By simply wiring the two sets of terminals in Paralell (positive1 to positive2 ---> amp, negative1 to negative2 ----> amp, you are now having the amp "see" a load of 2 ohms, and your amp will produce 300 Watts RMS into this speaker. If you wired the voice coils in Series, (pos1 to neg2 -----neg on amp, neg1 to pos2------->pos on amp) the amp will "see" a resistance of 8 ohms, causing the amp to produce 75 watts, but with less distortion than at 300 watts. The distortion at 2 ohms is pretty low anyway, and you probably won't hear it. Well, i'm sure you've heard some of this before, but I figured you or someone else could benefit. When I had no idea how the stuff worked, I blew up my fair share of equipment because I didn't bother to ask, and I thought I knew how it worked. Most professional car stereo installers will take time out to explain stuff to you. (P.S. I don't consider major chain store installers professionals for the most part) Have fun hooking your stuff up. Later- <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="gr_grin.gif" />

Beeler422

iTrader: (3)

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by IM LOWR:
<strong> An amplifier does not have ohms, the speaker(or sub woofer) does. Typically the less ohms the more power(watts) the amp will produce - however, if you lower the ohm load(i.e. changing speakers or wiring differently), the quality of sound reproduction may suffer if you go too low. An amp you can buy at Best Buy or at a flea market may say it will put out 600watts but that 600w will be very 'un-controlled' and have alot of distortion. If I were you i would buy a JL 300/1 amp for your stealth box. </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes, I know that amps don't have ohms. The speaker does. But you can't just wire any amp down to 1 ohm to get more power out of it. You'll overload the amp. It should tell you what the amp is stable to.

chris's ws6

iTrader: (1)

Thanks guys for all the info. I decided to get a JL Audio 500/5 for what I want to do. The only problem is that I want to finish my twin turbo kit. So I will be selling the amp. If anyone wants it I am asking 700.00 shipped to your door. If you guys think that is still to high, make me an offer. I never even took it out of the box and paid full retail for it 899.99.

Beeler422

iTrader: (3)

What is the amp? In your first post you said this....

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by chris's ws6:
<strong>I was able to find an alpine MRV-M300 Amp for only 238.00 shipped.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">