about ohms on subs?

Question

if the sub is 4 ohms and the amp is 2 ohms, will it sound bad or be bad for the sub?

Answer 1

You always want an impedance match or you will be wasting a lot of the amp's power. You can get a matching transformer or resistor network to get the two impedances identical.

Answer 2

WOW!!! Rich Z is WAY off.

When the amp says 2 ohm ohm, that's the smallest ohm value it can handle. A 4 ohm load to the amp is actually better as it's not a strain on the amp. 0 ohms is a dead short after all.

The amp will have a watt RMS rating at 4 ohm, that's what the sub will get.

How you load an amp determines the amount of power out.

There is a trade off though, the lower the impedance (ohms) the more power is pushed as well as higher distortion and more heat is generated. The excessive heat will shorten the life of the amp.

For best overall performance, it's far better to get a higher powered amp and load it with 4 ohms than a lower powered amp and force it to push more power with a lower impedance (2 or less ohms) load.

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Answer 3

Resistors are pointless as they only dissipate the extra power as heat. It will get max power from the amp, yes, but the only thing it's doing is making the amp work harder. It's not allowing the other speaker to get more power. Pointless.

Loading the amp to 4ohms instead of 2 will actually make it sound better as the amp is running more efficiently.

Have Fun!