4-8 Ohm HU with 2 ohm speakers?

[leonardotmnt]

I've heard different things now about powering 2 ohm speakers with a 4-8 ohm head unit. Some people have told me it's very bad but I emailed Pioneer and he said that it'd work fine. What will happen if I do this? The HU I'm looking at is the Pioneer DEH-P680MP.

[2ndGenGuy]

You will overheat the deck and weaken the amp. The longer you run it, the weaker the amp will get and pretty soon it will die. Unless the HU is designed to handle a 2ohm load.

What speakers are you running that are 2-ohm anyways???

[leonardotmnt]

I'm not positive they're 2 ohm actually but they're the 6.5" Infinity Kappa components. They say 2 ohm on the website now though I think I have last year's model. Someone in my other thread said they were 4 but I don't have the manual with me since I'm at school. If they're 4 that'd be good but I just went by the 2 it said on the website. Is that not what I should go by?

Pretty sure these are the ones I have. http://www.infinitysystems.com/caraudio/product.aspx?ProdId='KAPPA60.7CS'&Ser=KAP&Cat=COS

Edit: When it has a 50W RMS for the tweeters and 90W RMS for the woofers do I just go by the 90W for when I get an amp or are they added together or what? I had a Phoenix Gold Xenon 100.4 before it was stolen but I don't remember a lot of this stuff from when I looked it up before.

[Hash_man_Se_i]

Thats wierd... Most of the time components run at 4ohm... And like 2ndgenguy said, the deck probably wont like it. Most deck amps arent very stable at 2ohm.

Also, it says power handling is 90W rms for the set... So go by that, but more power is not a bad thing.

[leonardotmnt]

That really stinks since I can't really afford both an amp and a head unit right now. There's no way I could get an amp and use the stock HU for now is there? And I wonder why the Pioneer guy said it'd be fine. I'd try it but I bet they'd claim they never said it'd work and it voided the warranty.

[2ndGenGuy]

Yeah high end speakers usually require an Amp. Especially the Kappas. I have a set of older kappas in my car. Tried running them off the deck and it sucked. Hooked up the amp though, and wondered if subs were really necessary anymore.

Actually any speaker will sound better on an amp. Head units just can't produce the same power in that TINY din-sized space.

Yeah you can run an amp off of the stock HU just fine. Just make sure to get one with high-level inputs. Then you run the speaker wires from the deck to the high-level inputs on the amp. I would recommend going this route. You'll be amazed at the sound you'll get from the stock head unit not having to work so hard. Plus it will be very sleeper-esque. Just make sure and set your crossovers right, and it will be damn LOUD!

[leonardotmnt]

Yeah, I know I need an amp to really get anything out of my speakers but at the moment I have just speakers and nothing to power them. It gets a bit boring driving from Cleveland to Pittsburgh and back with no tunes. I'm just trying to see if I could get by with the HU amp for a bit until I can afford a new amp.

[ghettogeddy]

i have an audiobahn a4004t for sell its a 4ch

[leonardotmnt]

I'm not sure how well it'd power my Kappas and it doesn't have speaker level inputs at least from what cardomain says so that'd probably be a no go. Though I have no clue what I could really get at the moment. The PG 100.4 that I had before doesn't have speaker level inputs either so if I bought it it wouldn't matter. Maybe I'll just get the HU and come cheap 4 ohm speakers or something. Anyone have any opinions on the Pioneer DEH-P680MP or the Kenwood Echelon KDC-x790? I think at the moment I'd lean toward the Kenwood because it has 5v preouts over 4v and it has a security code which would be nice after my last deck getting stolen. The Pioneer looks better IMHO and the Kenwood seems to have a huge remote but no big deal I guess.

[ghettogeddy]

id go kenwood ive never had aprob with the ones ive owend

[MessyHonda]

yeah the deck will get hot. my friend had the same problem....so he riged a lil fan on the deck...