which amp is better

[stang46sc]

I have a JL 12 w3 dual voice coil woofer, and dont know what amp to get. I went to Josephs and he wanted to sell me a Memphis amp that had a boost control knob. He said it was 200 watts bridged. I dont remember the model #. He wanted $225 for it.

Then i went to Best Buy and they recomended a Sony 780W amp. This amp put out 360W bridged. They wanted $190 for it.

I havent had a system since early 90's. I dont have a clue.

[The Big Matt]

if that's a dual voice coil 6 ohm speaker, it's gonna suck on whatever amp you put it on. Even run mono between the two voicecoils it'll only be running 3 ohm.

With an effecient amp, you want to be running 1 ohm mono, or lower, for the best bang.

It'd be better to find a 2ohm speaker, non dual voice coil.

In all honesty w3's are meant to be run in sets of 3. That's how JL audio designed the dual voice coils.

3 6ohm speakers run mono will put you down to 1 ohm.

[stang46sc]

Well i took the speaker to the stereo Josephs Audio and he looked at it and said the speaker will hit like a mofo with the amp he was wanting to sell me and intall. I dont know much about systems anymore so im clueless. He did say that they would have to hook it up for me to make sure its wired right, but i do understand what you are saying. Im confused now. Are you saying that its not gonna sound good? No matter how i hook it up?

[stang46sc]

He told me that i need 100 per voice coil? make any sense. He said he can make it sound good. Oh well, ill let them install the amp and see how it sounds and if its not good then i'll sell the JL and get the right one

[EW]

Silverback, You are wrong.
The 12W3's come in three different ohm loads.
12W3-D2=2 2ohm coils
12W3-D4=2 4ohm coils
12W3-D6=2 6ohm coils

The ohm load and number of coils has nothing to do with the way a speaker sounds. It does have to do with how much power the amp puts out and the ohm load the amp sees.

You need 250W-400W RMS to run that speaker well. Sony amps are not really made to play bass as well as some other amps.
You should get a JL Audio 250/1. It puts out 250W RMS at any ohm load from 1.5 ohm-4 ohm.

[evil jose]

I thought the wattage will vary depending on the Ohm placed on the amplifier? Or I misunderstanding you by the statement "It puts out 250W RMS at any ohm load from 1.5 ohm-4 ohm"

[stang46sc]

ew You are correct... The speaker was a 4 ohm. I purchased a Memphis D series that puts out 250x1 with a built in crossover and a remote gain control. All i can say is DAMN it hits hard.

[The Big Matt]

Originally posted by EW
Silverback, You are wrong.
The 12W3's come in three different ohm loads.
12W3-D2=2 2ohm coils
12W3-D4=2 4ohm coils
12W3-D6=2 6ohm coils

The ohm load and number of coils has nothing to do with the way a speaker sounds. It does have to do with how much power the amp puts out and the ohm load the amp sees.

You need 250W-400W RMS to run that speaker well. Sony amps are not really made to play bass as well as some other amps.
You should get a JL Audio 250/1. It puts out 250W RMS at any ohm load from 1.5 ohm-4 ohm.

I don't think i was wrong... I said, "if that's a dual voice coil 6 ohm speaker" right??

And I never said ohm load and number of coils had anything to do with the way it sounds. I said, the lower the ohm load the better the bang.

How can an amp put out 250W RMS through different ohm levels?? I thought as you lowered the ohms you increased the ammount watts possble.

Like an amp running 200W mono at 4 ohm, should run 400W mono at 2 ohm, and 800W mono at 1 ohm, if the amp is 1 ohm stable???

[mike]

Originally posted by Silverback



Like an amp running 200W mono at 4 ohm, should run 400W mono at 2 ohm, and 800W mono at 1 ohm, if the amp is 1 ohm stable???

That can be true in alot of cases but not all amps will do thoses numbers. Most companies will claim that a amp is stable to 1 ohm, but in alot of cases they are not, and if they are it is not clean power. Most amp's will not tripple there power, This is not to say that some won't do this, But I don't want anyone to think that if you go buy a Radio Shack amd amp bring it down to a 1/2 ohm if will sound good. Bad power or distoration will kill a speaker faster than too much clean power.

[jbullerjr]

Originally posted by Silverback
if that's a dual voice coil 6 ohm speaker, it's gonna suck on whatever amp you put it on. Even run mono between the two voicecoils it'll only be running 3 ohm.

With an effecient amp, you want to be running 1 ohm mono, or lower, for the best bang.

It'd be better to find a 2ohm speaker, non dual voice coil.

In all honesty w3's are meant to be run in sets of 3. That's how JL audio designed the dual voice coils.

3 6ohm speakers run mono will put you down to 1 ohm.


I see that he has already gotten a different sub, but the dual- vioce coil 6 ohm sub would have worked very well.

Remember that a two channel amp, when bridged, will "see"
one half the ohm load that is wired to it.

So, a dual 6 ohm sub wired parallel (+'s wired together and -'s wired together), becomes a 3 ohm speaker. Connect this to a bridged amp and the amp will "see" a 1.5 ohm load.

It is true that JL designed the dual 6 ohm subs to be run in 3's, but the idea is to get a 4 ohm load.

We get this load by running the voice coils of each sub in series and the subs themselves in parallel.

To do this, you run the + from one voice coil to the - of the other vioce on the same sub (known as series wiring). You are left with one + and one -. The load will be 12 ohms at those terminals.

You then wire the three +'s together and the three -'s together (known as parallel wiring).

This will give you a 4 ohm load (12 ohm speaker divided by the number of speakers in parallel ((3)), equals 4 ohm load).

Most amps on the market will run a 4 ohm load when bridged.

Just FYI, if anyone is wanting to run 3 subs, you do not have to buy JL, most higher quality amps (Kicker, PG, higer line RF, PPI, etc...) will run three 8 ohm subs in parallel. 8 ohm speaker divided by the number of speakers in paralell (3) equals a 2.6 ohm load.

Oh, and in response to Jose's question:
The new JL amps are designed to put out the same power almost regardless of the ohm load (more wiring options).

James

[The Big Matt]

Originally posted by mike


That can be true in alot of cases but not all amps will do thoses numbers. Most companies will claim that a amp is stable to 1 ohm, but in alot of cases they are not, and if they are it is not clean power. Most amp's will not tripple there power, This is not to say that some won't do this, But I don't want anyone to think that if you go buy a Radio Shack amd amp bring it down to a 1/2 ohm if will sound good. Bad power or distoration will kill a speaker faster than too much clean power.

True true, i was speaking for amps capable of 1 ohm or lower...

I've seen people try to run a 1 ohm load on a 2 ohm stable amp...

burned carpet has a pretty smell :)

[ScottJ]

FYI, the 10w6's that ive run have allways been wired for 4 ohm mono which is an easy fix with any big 2 ch amp. Prob is you need 3. If your doing 1, it can be ran 6 ohm stereo or 12 ohm mono (which is terrible). 2 can be run 12 ohm stereo, 3 ohm stereo (which is decent, have heard this sound good) or 1.5 ohm mono (oh ya). And of course 3 can be run 4 ohm mono (intended mode) and several other weird ways. dual 6 ohm voicecoils is a tricky, and work best in 3's (duh)