Sensitivity/Impedance Explaination

[Jacob Dryer]

I have already chosen the amp (alpine MRP-M350) which is 200 RMS at 4 Ohms and 350 RMS at 2 Ohms. Now I'm trying to decide which will be better Alpine SWR-1042D which is a dual voicecoil 4 ohm Sensitivity 83db . So will end up being a 2 Ohm load on the amp. Or an Alpine SWE-1042 which is a single 4 ohm Sensitivity 87db.



Which is going to be louder? Can you explain why?

 

[Andy Szkutak]

As many audio companies will tell you, sensitivity is not really an accurate way to measure how loud a sub will be in comparison to another...In msot cases, the dvc dual voice coil will slam harder than a single because power is being pushed into 2 voice coils. I have a dual 4 ohm running at a 2 ohm load, and that is much better than a single voice coil running at 4ohms...more watts come from lower impedences, but also lower in sq sound quality comes, but between 2 and 4 ohms, its not even audible...

God for the dual 4 type s...



Good luck and post pics,

Andy

 

[Travis Munday]

Numbers wise, the SVC will be louder. I forget the exact numbers, but it take something like twice the wattage to be twice as loud, which is only 5 db or something. However, I'd buy the DVC sub and wire it up for 2 ohms. This sub should be slightly cleaner and will hit harder, espically in a sealed box. I run a DVC in a sealed box at about 600W, very tight, and very loud. I might be going with two DVC subs and changing the load to 4 ohms....not ideal or what I want, but can't argue with the gift horse.

 

[Jacob Dryer]

Well looks like I might be going with dual 8"'s instead of the single 10". I've been measuring and it would be a REALLY tight fit to get the alpine 10 in there the way I want. So thanks for the input.

 

[Travis Munday]

If you're gonna use dual subs, get SVC and wire them up to give the amp a 2 ohm load, you'll get max performance from your amp that way.

 

[Dreman]

It takes twice the power to increase the sound level by 3db. If you get 90db at 1 watt, then you should get 93db at 2 watts, 96 db at 4 watts, and so on. Sensitivity is how much sound in decibels you get from a speaker for a certain power input. Higher sensitivity means more sound from less power. Impedance is the resistance the speaker has to electrical flow through the speaker. They really aren't related, but impedance does affect the sound output. Lower impedance means easier electrical flow through the speaker for a given power level, and should be more sound, although you can hurt the amp if the impedance is too low.

 

[Jacob Dryer]

After further research I've decided I am going to run dual 8's. They will be 4 ohm but now I have to figure out which ones. I still plan to use the same amp since it will match my current 4 channel running my door speakers. Thanks for the info guys.