Stereo Amp -> 2Ohms

[maxcom99]

Hi All,
Ive read somewhere that if you drop your car amp down from 8 or 4 or whatever it is to 2ohms that this would almost double the output watts. I realize that this would overheat the (car) amp but I'll stick a fan on it I used to have one of these modified amps but my car got broken into and long story short, Id like to do this to my current amp. Any pointers on this subject? Something about taking a headphone amplifier and routing it back through the amp? I dont know... looking for ANY clues....
-max

 

[cipher00]

In general, you'll want to match the impedance of the preamp/amp with the speakers as designed (read: it may not be a very good idea to change the setup). Try browsing over to stereophile or, better yet, the absolute sound, for some info. FWIW.

 

[blahblah99]

You can drop your load down to 2 Ohms or even 1 Ohms if your amp can handle that low loads, but your THD will certainly rise dramatically and sound won't be as clean. And cipher00 is right about matching impedance of the preamp/amp. If an amp is designed for a 4Ohm load, it will deliver maximum power with that load. Anything more or less will not give you the maximum power transfer.

 

[jteef]

running 2 ohms is not advised unless your amp is specifically designed to operate at that level. in addition to twice the current in the output devices, the efficiency will also fall. A fan generally is not going to help much at high power levels. Many times with music turned all the way up the amplifier will be operating under worst case conditions. even higher heat dissipation than say playing pure tones at full rated output power.

if you live in a cool area and it isn't a cheaply built amp, you might get away with it. I wouldn't exect the amp to last very long in a hot summer environment though. The heat sinks on car amp's typically aren't very good. playing for extended periods of time at even the rated output will usually either fry the outputs or trigger the thermal protection.

jt

 

[maxcom99]

Thanks for the good advice. However, I would still like to do this even as just a project. I didnt find any useful info on cipher's links. Any direct pointers?

Thanks guys -max

 

[jteef]

there are a few car audio forums where you could post your question and your amp to see if others have experience running it at 2 ohms.

www.sounddomain.com
www.termpro.com
www.carsound.com
www.caraudioforums.com

jt