so instead of getting a 1ohm sub, you'd pay extra to buy an amp that is twice as powerful to drive a 2ohm sub?



Power is cheap nowadays. You are not limited because of the resistance. You may not have the amp being driven at full potential, but at least you have headroom.


Usable power and the box itself are related. As the box gets bigger, generally the efficiency increases and power handling is reduced. In and added benefit to efficiency, your low end will increase, your frequency response will smooth out, and transient response will be improved. This is all only if your sub will allow it, but most subs will.


The trade off? Bigger box.

 

Power is not cheap. A 400W amp will, in general, cost you at least 50% more than a 200W amp. However, a 4 ohm sub would cost the same as a 2 ohm sub. If the guy already has an amp double the sub's power then it's fine. Otherwise, makes no sense to me.

A bigger box will not make up for a 50% less powerful amp, no matter how big you make it.

 

back in the early 90s, power was sacred to say. compared to today, you can find a 1500w amp for say $250. Back then? probably over $1000. I would hope an amp that makes more power would cost more than one that does. In today's amp, the options of how to hook a sub up and the flexibility exceeds the requiremend to get a "4ohm" sub and such.

The resistance of the subwoofer will change depending on the frequency and the box. You are not always getting 4ohm so it shouldn't really matter. the 8ohm will dip below 8ohm at a certain frequency. 8ohm is just a norminal value that does not limit you to which amp you can use because as it says in the name, it's only norminal.

the box will make a big difference.

when you combine the sub, the box, and the power it receives, you get an overall efficiency. You can change any of those variables and you will change the efficiency. Take what it's worth, my subwoofer in a 1.0 cubic feet sealed box with 600w is as loud as it is in an infinite baffle receiving 300w.

efficiency plays a big role and power is just a reactant to the product. Power is not the only source to gain efficiency. A subwoofer cone moving at say 10mm with 100w is going to be loud as the same sub moving 10mm but with 50w with the same overall efficiency. but of course, the one that is receiving 50w will need a bigger box.


Gink5, you should be able to find many amp that will drive the subwoofer into full capability that will not make you go broke.

here is one:
http://www.thezeb.com/p-Hifonics-Falcon-2-...fier-106501.htm

 

Depends how you look at it. If you get a headunit that does not have a lot of flexibility such as having an EQ, you probably won't notice a big difference.

One of the bigger reason why people are noticing a difference when exchanging a headunit is the equalization itself. Honda headunits have undefeatable built in DSP. The equalization of the headunit is there to make up for the cheap speakers being used. If I were to throw an average consumer in an s2000 without an equalization, that consumer will say "blah, this sounds bad!". the headunit then is made to boost some of the frequency such as the higher freq and people will think the highs are more detailed because it is not as flat. People are use to perceiving an unsmooth frequency response as being detailed. Also the difference is power. the extra power over the stock deck will be noticeable, but they will only be good as the weakest link.


speakers are the biggest contributor to distortion as they will put out more than 10% THD. Many speakers are not able to play every little detail so one of the best thing is to upgrade the speakers. Of course they are not going to be sensitive as stock speakers so people are going to drive the stock headunit into clipping to try to get to a comfortable volume, but fail and it'll sound bad.


Now if you are handy with a flexible EQ of an aftermarket EQ, you can make it sound much different and improve the sound. It takes tuning on everything to make it sound good. No one can drop in something and have it like that.

 

"Just about" any aftermarket deck will sound way better than most stock HU's for if no other reason the extra power they put out. However you don't need to be a genius to set the setting on your deck. Just set them to whatever sound best to you... its your car

Actually with the newer Alpine decks you can. You can enter the info onto Alpines website, they give you the right settings, you burn it to a disk, you pop it into the deck an bam! your deck gets programed... or you can just tune it by hand if you know how.

 

well yea. what i meant was we can't just put in a headunit with a flat setting be done. i'm sure everyone here tinkers around with the treble and bass settings

 

oh... I was thinking of my mother, in that if my brother or I don't set up her decks... forgetaboutit And some people out there just really don't know and have no business even messing with it.

 

So i took a shit this morning and i look in the toilet and my stock speaker were in there. Anyway i got the new speakers in and they make a world of difference. Not really louder but alot more clear. I had to make a wood mount because the plastic one in there wasnt way too small.

 

congrats Gink5!

Are they amped? Or are you running them off your stock HU?

 

I have a feeling im going to need to hook up and amp to them, but for now they are running off the HU.