Originally Posted by
youngin3
Well if you hook them up in series they will show 8 ohms at the amp. The amp puts out a certain amount of power at a certain resistance. The less resistance the more power the amp puts out, but the more power the amp puts out, the more heat generated and the more stress the amp is put under.
Normally, it works like this (as example. The numbers are made up.)
"AMP" has a max output rating of 1000W at 2 ohms. It is a Class D monoblock.
At 2 ohms it would be 500W RMS and 1000W Peak
At 4 ohms it would be something like 250W RMS and 500W Peak
At 8 ohms it would be something like 125W RMS and 250W Peak
So 2 ohms versus 8 ohms is four times the power. Your amp has to be able to handle the stress of pushing power at 2 ohms though. Some amps can't, especially 2 channel amps that have a bridging option. They are usually only 4 ohm stable.
Most monoblocks are 2 ohms stable and many are 1 ohm stable.
What kind of subs did you get from your friend? Is there one voice coil per sub or two voice coils? The way to tell that is how many connections there are on the back of each sub. If there are two on each side or one in each four corners, then it is a dual voice coil and your options for resistance are widened. If it is a single voice coil, then you have two choices for resistance.
If they are 12" subs, then you might just want to use one of them, depending on how much power they are rated to handle. If you try to push them both with the one amp and the amp cannot provide enough clean power to the subs at high volume, then you might melt the voice coils in the subs and then they will both be useless.
REMEMBER THIS!
MOST OF THE TIME, it is best to OVER POWER a sub than to UNDER POWER it. When you under power a sub, the amp pushes dirty, clipped signals to the sub and it melts the voice coil. Take some pictures for me so I can see what you have.
Where are you located?