Could Someone Please Explain ohms for subwoofers to me?

[justusisaboss]

Ok so I know there are a lot of explanations of what a ohm is and how it works but i just don't get it. I also would like to know how many ohms in an amp I would need for two 400w rms 800w peak subwoofers. I see all these amps on amazon that say things like 4 ohms stable @ 800w but would that power my two 4 ohm subs at 400w each? If you could also a nice explanation of what a single voice coil is vs a dual voice coil. Thank you in advance!

 

[makkem]

Hi
It depends how you wire the subs.
Two 4 ohm subs in parallel would give 2 ohms load to the amp so an 800 Watt amp into 4 Ohms would potentially deliver 1600 Watts into 2 ohms and may damage the amp if it is not designed to deliver into 2 ohms.
Two 4 ohm subs in series would give 8 ohms and the same amp would deliver 400 Watts with no problems.

A standard speaker has one voice coil and it is this that determines the resistance (ohms) of the speaker.
Some speakers ,especially subs have two voice coils with two sets of connections that can be wired individually.
So a sub with two 4 ohm coils can be wired to give 2 ohms (parallel) or 8 ohms (series).