Wiring a subwoofer down to .5 ohms?

Question

I have a subwoofer that is MA audio and it is a 2 ohm subwoofer. I am looking at an amplifier that can handle .5 ohms up to 4 ohms and am wondering if you can wire a single subwoofer that is 2 ohms down to 1 or .5 ohms? If so can I see a diagram of it, or directions on how to do so? thanks.

Answer 1

if it is dual voice coil you can wire it to 1 ohm, and if it is a single voice coil you can wire to .5 ohms.  I recommend brands like rockford fosgate for one ohm, and sundown audio for .5.  I hear the sundowns handle low ohm loads very well.  Just don't go cheap on the amp.

http://www.the12volt.com/caraudio/woofer...

rockford also has a good one on their site

Answer 2

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.

More info here http://spkrbox1.spaces.live.com

Answer 3

Amps that can run that low are kinda expensive.

The sub is Dual 2 ohms? or just 2 ohms?

I would recommend the JL Audio 500/1. You can run it  from 1.5 ohms to 4 and it will still be putting out ATLEAST 500 watts rms x1

Answer 4

if you wire it to .5 ohms and it works then the speaker will only last half as long as it would at 2 ohms so i dont know if it would be a good idea anyways