I am looking at some 8" subs from JL, but am unsure of which one to get. I think the 8W3 V2 is probably the right line for me, but there are a couple of different options - 8ohm, 4ohm, and 2ohm. Each have subtle differences, but I have no clue which one is the best choice for my application. I listen to mostly rock/metal, but do listen to some stuff with deep bass once in a while. The subs will be mounted right behind the driver's seat facing forward. Any advice on which sub to choose?

Thanks.

sundevil67

 

It will depend on your amp. An ohm is just the electrical impedance measured at the subs voicecoil. It will all depend on how many subs you have and what you your amp is rated for.

Fixed noted

 

It depends more on what amp you are using.

If you are going with a 2 ohm stable 2 channel amp go with 8 ohms, if you are going with a 1 ohm stable 2 channel then go with 4 ohm. If you are going with a 1 channel 2 ohm stable amp go with the 4 ohms, if you are going with a 1 channel 1 ohm stable amp go with the 2 ohm. This is assuming you are going with two subs

 

They should all sound the same since the only dif is ohms. Now what does matter is the amp your going to drive it with. The lower the ohm load...the more difficult a load it is, but if your amp is designed to safely handle the lower ohm loads then lower load should extract a maximum power from the amp.

Basically look for the minimum ohm load "bridged mono" your amp can handle. Then get the JL w3 sub that matches that.

edit:
if your going with multiple subs...you'll have to figure what combo of subs you need to match the minimum recommended ohm load for the amp.

For instance if you have two 4 ohm subs, they can be wired together so the amp sees both subs as a single sub. Either 8 ohm when subs are wired in series or 2ohm when wired in parallel. The 2 ohm will likely draw more power from the amp, but if the amp isn't designed to handle it...the low ohm's can make the amp overheat and shutdown.

 

An ohm in this case is the measured impedance of the voice coil, not the resistance of the magnet.

 

check this page out it answers most of your questions. http://mobile.jlaudio.com/support_pages.php?page_id=161


Keep in mind that most amps are 2 ohm stable. The lower the product of your ohm ratings the hotter your amps will run and in turn a larger amount of stress is put on your electrical system.

 

Pretty true but ... if you study the JL released figures the Thiel-Small parameters vary just a bit between impedance values. Why I don't know but they do. How much you'll notice is also very debatable.

Given the ability you want to run with the lowest possible impeadance speakers as the low voltages our 12 VDC amplifiers makes pushing a higher impedance harder than a lower one. Coming up with amperes is much easier.

 

I haven't studied the JL specs ...but considering even among subs branded and spec'd the same there can be a good bit of difference in actual measured specs from one sub to the next. So I'd think any minor variance will yeild very little audible differences. Especially since were dealing with subs here. Mids and tweets may be a different story though.

Sorry, I don't realy follow the second part of your post.

 

I haven't chosen an amp yet; I figured I would find the best sub first and then choose an amp that will work best with them. Which of the "ohm" levels is the best for this situation I wonder? The picture below is exactly what I want to do. This picture was posted on this forum, but by who I can't recall. As I think I mentioned somewhere, I listen to mostly rock/metal with the occasional hip hop tune - and I want the back of my neck to thump when there's some good double-bass. Any of you know this guy or which subs these are? Then I'd be able to at least hear a review.

 

You really shouldn't pick the subs first. You already know what series sub you want, and you know how many, so you should know approximately how much power you will need. Go looking for an amp now that will satisfy your requirements. Once you pick out the amp you will then know how many channels it has (1 or 2) and what its lowest stable load level is. Once you know this info then you can pick out the impedance of your subs.