¿2 ohm or 4 ohm subwoofer?
 

I currently have a 2005 8" kicker solo baric L5 in my boat and plan on upgrading to the newer 8" solo baric L7 subwoofer(gonna stay with the 8" size because I love the custom box I have). I will also be upgrading the amp to the WetSounds syn 6. As I intend it to run the in boat speakers, as well as the newer sub. I just wanted to be sure I purchase the correct ohmed subwoofer that works best with that configuration. Thanks!

Dual 2 ohm wired in series to = 4 ohm and run bridged on chnls 5 and 6 will net you 600W rms

I just bought a sub and noticed it had the 2ohm or 4ohm option, upon further research, the different ohm subs performed better in different volume boxes. The 2ohm required a slightly larger box. You may want to calc your boxes volume and find the best paired sub.

No, not typically, and not with the Kicker. The Ohm configuration of the 2 coils has do with choosing the correct amp to power it. A 2 ohm DVC L7-8 will perform exactly the same as the 4 Ohm DVC L7-8 when placed in the same enclosure and driven with the same RMS power. The combined impedance of the sub will have an impact on the amps output, so you need to choose the correct DVC configuration that nets you the right power for the sub, while keeping the amp in its proper impedance range.

A 2 ohm DVC will be either 1 ohm or 4 ohm load at the amp and a 4 ohm DVC will be either a 2 ohm or 8 ohm load. Most amps are typically stable to 2 ohm, but there are a few that are stable at 1 ohm.

maybe not the kicker, but the sub I got, the JL audio 12w3v2 (2 ohm) had a recommended box volume larger than the 12w3v4 (4 ohm) per jl audio's spec page.

For a single sub on a pair of the channels bridged together on that amp I think you'd want a 4 ohm impedance. You could accomplish that with a 4 ohm single voice coil obviously. You could do a dual 2 ohm voice coil in series or a dual 8 ohm in parallel. A dual 4 ohm wouldn't be good because you'd only be able to get a 2 ohm load in parallel or an 8 ohm in series.

Sorry been at the lake all day...
hmmm lots of mixed reviews on this. I know my current solo baric L5 is a DVC and is only configured to one coil. Doesn't really help though since i'm changing out the amp also.

For running it off the syn 6 you want a dual 2 ohm sub. We have that exact amp doing exactly what you want to do and we have a dual 2 ohm sub. The syn 6 will push 600w to a dual 2 ohm sub.

this may help determine which sub i need, my in boat configuration/plan. 2 pairs of wetsounds xs 650 inboat speakers and the solo baric L7 subwoofer

Chpthril describes it properly, (almost)... Get the dual 2-ohm...

Know that taking a dual 2-ohm woofer and wiring to 4-oms and then bridging is electrically the same as just taking each individual coil to channels 5 and 6 of the amp you want to use.... You get the same abount of power. Tim at Wetsounds might chime in, as he might know of a reason for wiring it one way over the other, but it typically works out the same.

A dual 2-ohm L7 takes the same box volume as a dual 4-ohm L7 so don't worry. ALSO, the L5 8 works in same volume as L7 8 so you don't need to be concerned about changing boxes.


If you have concerns, check out the KICKER U ap for android or iPhone. It has box volume calculators, tuning calkculators, tone generators... Lots of nifty audio tools right there in one simple ap. YOu can verify what I shared regarding box volumes.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out!

Phil
Kicker

Thanks for all the input guys! My stereo will be bumping in no time!