What does it take to run .5ohms

[bigarsenal 0]

i want to run my orion 2500d to .5ohms. i want to know what it will take to run that low i have two red tops and 160alt. two 15 inch Arsenals. shouldn that work

[loudcav 1]

i want to run my orion 2500d to .5ohms. i want to know what it will take to run that low i have two red tops and 160alt. two 15 inch Arsenals. shouldn that work

talk to Loud1500 on CA hes got quite a bit of experience running the 2500s that low

[shizzzon 461]

if you have 75,000 group 8d batts, it's not gonna matter. you will be hitting below 1ohm after rise a lot by doing that and do not expect your amp to last too long for music.

Keeping the voltage up is just to prevent it from going into protect immediately.

What's going to protect the components from over-stressing themselves when distributing power in a manner that the amp was not meant to do?

Let alone when the Orion first came out, it was around the hype age of the 2500w era in car audio. A lot of companies were bringing amps out around that range. I remember tons and tons of stories of Orions getting damaged. I still hear of current incidents of them still.

I had bought the Cadence instead which was like 1,000w overrated but over 90% efficient tested.

I don't suggest anyone run an amp lower than rated regardless of electrical system.

why overwork something on a daily basis when you can just get a recone to fit the amp at hand... if your sub company does that...

[johnecon2001 82]

You need to be prepared to keep your voltage in the 12's. Two red tops isn't going to do that for you.

You'll need to upgrade your alternator to something in the neighborhood of 200 amps and get a more stout battery under the hood (or in the trunk).

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

I have the Orion, and it has been solid as a rock for me and we have used it for stress/abuse testing SSA drivers. There are a good number of people that ran it at .5 ohms and have done well. What I am confused about is how a pair of Arsenals are going to get to .5 ohms since they are D4, unless you ordered special versions. The issue with the Orion's was that people did not have the electrical system to support such a powerful amplifier, or they did not have the experience or know how to use it, and then there would be voltage drops and kaboom. So holy crap it must be a crummy amp! Sorry no, user error. john mentioned some good ideas with upgrading the electrical system to support the amplifier. Big3/a few strong deep cycle batteries/ and maybe a bigger alternator.

In my opinion, unless you are worried about scores on a TL mic, its not worth it. Run it at a higher ohm load and put less strain on the system and get more life out of the amp and subs.

[ILuvJDM 0]

noob question, but does running an amplifier at a lower resistance strain the electrical system or is it just the amount of power that 2500d makes at .5ohm? I'm looking for an amp for a friend and he has 2 Dual 4ohms so I was going to get him a 1ohm stable amp that does 600-700watts. Should I look for something that does that at 4ohm instead? He will have a stock electrical system, possibly Big3 though.

-John

[johnecon2001 82]

It's pretty amplifier dependent, but usually, yes. A lower ohm load will have a higher strain on the electrical system.

[helotaxi 46]

noob question, but does running an amplifier at a lower resistance strain the electrical system or is it just the amount of power that 2500d makes at .5ohm? I'm looking for an amp for a friend and he has 2 Dual 4ohms so I was going to get him a 1ohm stable amp that does 600-700watts. Should I look for something that does that at 4ohm instead? He will have a stock electrical system, possibly Big3 though.

If the amp is running into a designed load (i.e. it's made to run at 1 ohm--the Orion 2500D was not made to run @ 0.5 ohms) then it shouldn't tax the electrical system appreciably more than an amp doing the same power at a higher impedance. There are some exceptions to this but they are just that, exceptions. Something to consider is that an amp that will do the power that you're looking for at 4 ohms is going to 1) cost more that one that does it @ 1 ohm and 2) will probably be a bridged Class A/B amp which will be less efficient than a Class D and actually place a considerably larger strain on the electrical.

The issue with the 2500D (and other unregulated amps) is that you have to be careful to keep the voltage from dropping too much with the gains set very high. The dropping voltage allows the rail voltage to drop and gets the amp into premature clipping. The result is exceeding the duty cycle of the output FETs and smoking them. Running the amp at 0.5 ohms isn't the sole cause, you could do the same thing running it into 4 ohms, it's just that the amp draws a tremendous amount of current when run into 0.5 and it takes a really big current reserve to keep the voltage from dropping to dangerous levels.

[shizzzon 461]

Perfect explanation.

The lower the load, the lower the efficiency which causes a need to draw more power just to output the same power.

The only good thing I know about having an amp with same efficiency as another that can output let's say 2kw @4ohm vs 2kw @1ohm is -

Less current output from amps speaker leads so u could use smaller speaker wire but that's only thing I see.

[helotaxi 46]

Efficiency isn't the real problem. The problem is that the amp is going to try to make 2x the power when you half the load. Even with 100% efficiency for both loads the amp will have to draw 2x the current to make 2x the power. If you can't give it that amount of current without the voltage dropping significantly, you will have issues.

[djjdnap 78]

i had a kinetik 2400 and a 250a alt

never had any problems

[Lord Baccus 1]

1. turn the gain all the way down / to start with

2. lots of power

3. creep up on the gain wile burping, if you smell the coil back off the gain....

[sqguy 0]

It all depends on how the amp is built, but high power amps make more noise with higher voltage to the driver. When you half the ohm load, you allow more current to go through the driver and amp at same voltage (rails). Current makes heat not voltage, current burns things up. The amp is pushing power through the VC and ohms load is only thing that keeps it from shorting out. I would not recommend running under what the amp is rated at. Most amps that run lower ohms run less voltage on rails to balance it. The SPL guys that do that stuff set it up very carefully looking at rise at a particular range of frequency...usually not for music use or they smoke. You can do it, it is just like running N2O on a car daily it will just blow up faster unless you set it up properly.

[Lord Baccus 1]

It all depends on how the amp is built, but high power amps make more noise with higher voltage to the driver. When you half the ohm load, you allow more current to go through the driver and amp at same voltage (rails). Current makes heat not voltage, current burns things up. The amp is pushing power through the VC and ohms load is only thing that keeps it from shorting out. I would not recommend running under what the amp is rated at. Most amps that run lower ohms run less voltage on rails to balance it. The SPL guys that do that stuff set it up very carefully looking at rise at a particular range of frequency...usually not for music use or they smoke. You can do it, it is just like running N2O on a car daily it will just blow up faster unless you set it up properly.

WELL SAID

[djjdnap 78]

not taking away from the above post but,

didnt set up any of that on mine...

If theres a problem it should go into protect, most higher end class D amps have that technology on them....well most amps period these days.

most 2500 can run at .5 wt the right power...

[shizzzon 461]

built in protection is like a circuit breaker.

Fuses is like a beefy electrical system.

Fuses react faster than a circuit breaker.

If something goes wrong drastically real quick, protection won't react fast enough.

[sqguy 0]

You can do it, you might get away with it. It depends on the impedance the amp actually sees in use at the frequencies it is running at, as well as the particular amp itself. Many of those blown amps on ebay were run at a low load is all I am saying. You are stressing it and operating it outside of its designed use. Many of the SPL guys run right at the impedance peak so real load is much higher than what the driver says....and they only burp. Music will sound like crap this way. If you know the amp will do it or you don't care about roasting it then its ok. It might protect or might not, some amps that run low loads are actually worse I've been told (?) because they run so close to a short and may not sense low loads as well.

If I wanted to do it I would use an amp that others have had success with, and set it up carefully. I could care less what you do its your amp, just trying to inform and not familiar with that particular amp either. I like to hotrod stuff too, but like to use known equipment to do it and not have it smoke if possible. Cool the amp if it gets warm, that might help.