# can all 1ohm stable amps function at lower ohms?



## SpecV (Mar 26, 2009)

Quick question as if all 1ohm amps are stable at say 1/2 ohm? I do not see any talks about amps that are "below" 10hm stable. I am going to be wiring 3 or 4 subs up and was trying to find the best route.


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## azngotskills (Feb 24, 2006)

Did you even read your question? So if its stable down to 1ohm, wouldnt you think it would be "unstable" <1ohm? (per manufacturer's rating of course )

FYI there are actually a variety of amps stable <1ohm, check out the SPL sections especially on caraudio.com and the like


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## chad (Jun 30, 2005)

don't run uber low impedances, stop fixating on theoretical power numbers.


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## 89grand (Nov 23, 2006)

chad said:


> don't run uber low impedances, stop fixating on theoretical power numbers.


Why? It's mo better...on paper.


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## tanakasan (Sep 8, 2007)

No, or they would surely advertise that point.

There are old school amps -cheater amps- that can go below 1 ohm. Like 1/4 ohm, but they will need a lot of electrical system to back that up.

Stick with the mfr's recommended minimum!

Robert


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## 89grand (Nov 23, 2006)

****, even the old school amps that were "supposed" to be able to do it got so ****ing hot you couldn't even tough them after several minutes. About 20 years ago or so I worked with a kid that had a few of the old Orion HCCA's loaded way down. He couldn't even run the system for more than maybe 10-15 minutes before they would thermally shut down.

For some reason, the moron kept running them at like .5 or 1 ohm anyway.


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## Lanson (Jan 9, 2007)

Do you enjoy letting the magic smoke out?


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## cubdenno (Nov 10, 2007)

Odds are that if you are entertaining this question, you haven't thought about upgrading your electrical system to handle the demand. Or it was thought in passing and not seriously. Even with impedance rise, the current demands of an amp wired that low will be pretty serious. The amp trying to put out the power you are demand from it will suck more current as the voltage drop becomes greater which in turn causes more heat. Which has a tendancy to reduce the lifespan of the electronics.

Most people running amps below 1 ohm are SPL competitors who are trying to squeeze every watt/db out of their system. But only for a few seconds at a time. With a monstrous electrical system backing it up.


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## ChrisB (Jul 3, 2008)

Even MMATS told me NOT to use their 1/2 ohm stable amplifier in a daily use setup @ 1/2 ohm. Basically, the tech stated that the amplifier was designed more for competition use than for being used hours and hours on end at 1/2 an ohm.


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## Catman (Mar 18, 2008)

I have 'pushed my luck' with an old school Nak PA400 which is 2 ohm stable ...I ran one for years at 1.5 ohm ...but would not push it any lower. I have also ran the Orion HCCA amps at 0.5 ohm ...but I don't 'blast' all of the time.

IMO most of the crap put out these days is lucky to run at its rated impedance.

>^..^<


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## justinmreina (Nov 3, 2009)

With regards to this notion of 'wanting lower ohms', remember this in the simplest case:

*(1)* Heat is a function of current, not voltage
*(2)* Power = voltage*current = current^2*resistance​
So given a desired power requirement, do you want to use a high current amp (i.e. run it with a low-impedance), or a high voltage amp (i.e. run it with a high-impedance)? In the simplest case this may help. Also perhaps on the same topic, when they run multi-kilometer power lines of some target power (#2), do they pick high-voltage or high-current delivery?

And remember, two 2 ohm subs can be wired to make something lower (i.e. 1 ohm) or something higher (4ohm) so as they said above, you have wiring options.

Thanks,
Justin

*Correct me if I'm wrong, but amp noise is a strong function of delivered current at the output stage, not the output voltage?


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## chad (Jun 30, 2005)

Heat is a function of dissipated (wasted) power.


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## justinmreina (Nov 3, 2009)

chad said:


> Heat is a function of dissipated (wasted) power.


Sure that's another way to say it. But the primary heat-mechanism is current. For a lower impedance sub setup you're going to draw more current through your amp in contrast to the higher impedance configuration.

-Justin


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## chad (Jun 30, 2005)

only if voltage is a constant.


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## justinmreina (Nov 3, 2009)

The goal is power output... voltage/current are a consequence then of two parameters, Power (P) and Load (Z). And I guess your gain knob 

-Justin


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## chad (Jun 30, 2005)

You just contradicted yourself, there is NO high current amp, never, never will be.. only amps that can TOLERATE low impedances, amplifiers are ONLY and only ever will be voltage gain devices


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## justinmreina (Nov 3, 2009)

This is a silly conversation(not the thread, just the above discussion), I resign. Best of luck Chad...

-Justin


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## chad (Jun 30, 2005)

it's cool man, there was an epic thread on this but vB's search function is Pwning me at the moment.


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