Ohms & Wattage

[shakiroin]

Hi, I'm confused about wattage...

I have two 15" woofers to build a bass cab..
They are rated 8 ohm 200w rms 400w peak each..

If I wire them in serial then
I'll get 400w rms 800w peak at 16 ohm ?

If I wire them in parallel then
I'll get 400w rms 800w peak at 4 Ohm ?

I'm looking at two amps
one is rated 500w at 4 Ohms 350w at 8 ohms
the other is rated 250w at 4 ohms 180w at 8 ohms which one will be better for my purpose ?

Thanks

 

[glamrockin]

Based on the limited information you've given I'd say parallel wiring and the 500 watt amp.

 

[B-string]

^ Agreed if you series wire, the 500 watt amp will only send 125 to maybe 200watts out to your speakers, maybe 75 watts out of the 250 @ 4ohm amp. The speakers won't care but you might if you want to be heard.

 

[RickenBoogie]

The old +1 to them above. 4 ohm cab, with the 500 watt amp would kill. Just don't go to 11, and watch your low bass eq knobs.

 

[shakiroin]

Those heads have 2 x ¼ jacks on back...
It's the same if I wire in parallel the 2 woofers to get the 4 ohms and go into 1 ¼ jack ?OR if i hook 1 woofer into each ¼ jack ?

 

[IvanMike]

500 watt amp, wire the speakers in parallel, output jacks on amps are all parallel so it makes no difference if you build a 4 ohm 2x15, build 2 8 ohm 1x15 cabs and daisy chain them, or plug one 1x15 into each output jack.

what speakers are they exactly? if you plan to build boxes for them they will have requirements in box design to work optimally.