Thread: dual vioce coil sub/amp wiring

I saw in the forum rules not to post thread's about it but I didnt think it was an offense to put it in my signature.

If it is against your rules, please tell me to take it out. And I'm sorry if it offended or will offend anyone.

no offense taken, we are americans. We save being offended for the anti-american ultra liberals. and the canooks of course >;p

Originally Posted by WhiteRabbit

no offense taken, we are americans. We save being offended for the anti-american ultra liberals. and the canooks of course >;p

Lovely, didn't realize we are all americans, and non-liberals.

everyone except you

Oh well.... go socialism.

blah, this is why i avoid politics.

Originally Posted by WhiteRabbit

when wiring a subwoofer to your amplifier, its important to make sure the loads achieve the power production/consumtion you wish.

in your case, with a 60x2 150x1 amp, I will assume that that amplifier is rated for 60x2 at 4 ohms? 150x1 at 4 ohms? that load will play a major factor, later.


now, your subwoofer is probbaly a dual 4 ohm subwoofer. This would mean they are 4 ohms per coil. might be 2 ohm DVC, could be 8 ohm DVC, could be something else. But probably dual 4 ohm.

now, you have two wiring options (not three!). You can wire the coils together in series, or you can wire the coils together in parrallel. you can easily find diagrams on the internet to show you how to do each.

now, to calculate loads with pairs of even resistances, its pretty easy. series wiring doubles your load, parrallel wiring halves it. Thus, your only two wiring options with a 4 ohm DVC subwoofer will be 8 ohms (series) or 2 ohms (parrallel). this you can then wire up to your amplifier.

assuming your amplifier follows ohms law (it wont, due to regulated power supplies and other factors I dont understand) hooking up your subwoofer in an 8 ohm load to your amplfier will feed your subwoofer about 75 watts. Rated at 125 rms at 4 ohms, twice the load will result in poweroutput of about half. each coil would get about 40 watts. If we wire it in parrallel, the amp would see a two ohm load, and try to feed the subwoofer about 250 watts. the output transistors of your amp may or may not be able to handle that kind of current flow. If it cant (and I will bet it cant), then your amplifier will overheat and release the magic smoke.

crappy sound doesnt really enter into the picture. you cna have crappy sound with a different amp, with the same amp, wired to 8 ohms, wired to 2 ohms, etc. thatll be a factor of tuning, rather than electrical loading. furthermore, 60 watts is plenty for a subwoofer. its simply not enough bass for Cris. Do you think the ouput of this equipment will be enough for you? wire to 8 ohms and be done. not enough? might want to look into new equipment. subwoofer AND amp.

you DO have a third option, though I dont recommend it. you can wire the amplifier one coil per channel. the subwoofer will see 60 watts per coil, or 120 rms total. The problem with this, is that each coil has the potential to recieve a different signal than the other. If this happens, it will be a contributing factor to crummy sound. You can help protect agasint that by doing something like using a splitter to ensure right and left input are identical, however I prefer not to go that route no matter what.

technically, going by theoretical unregulated amplifier power based on ohms law, wiring 8 ohms going mono will giv eyou the same power as 4 ohms stereo anyways. the theoretical 50 watt amp would be rated for 50x2 @ 4, 100x2 @ 2, 200x1 @ 4, and 100x1 @ 8 ohms. so your subwoofer wired in stereo would see 50 watts a coil, or 100 watts across the whole driver. wred in 8 ohms mono would see 100 watts across the driver, or 50 watts per coil.

Except wired mono would be a guarantee each coil gets the same signal!

for a practical answer to your question, without explanation, I would wire your subwoofer to your amplifier in series for an 8 ohm mono load. the better course of action would be to purchase a new amplifier, one stable at 2 ohms for your subwoofer, or a second subwoofer so you can achieve a 4 ohm load, or a different subwoofer that is a 4 ohm mono subwoofer. The fact is, your equipment is very poorly matched as is (this is assuming I am right assuming your subwoofer is dual 4 and your amp is 4 ohm stable max mono). so the bottom line in this case is run your equipment under its capability, or get new equipment.

You made a interesting post!!! I'm having a problem you may be to help out on. I have a Soundstream D'Artagnan 5.1. This amp has only one preout sub in and one power out. It's rated at 200w @ 4 ohms and 400w @ 2 ohms. I was thinking of going the 8 ohm route. Now that being said would my sound be more accurate and cleaner at 8 ohms over 2 ohms. My sub is a infinity perfect 10 DVC and it is not a power hog. I'm interested in tight accurate bass at mid and low listening levels. I'm running a Tisumi GXE 660- 6 Channel and it has enough power to work the sub pretty good. I'm looking for for accurate highs, mids, and lows. I'm begaining to think I bought the wrong amp and to do this right I would need to get a SVC Perfect 10 or a amp that has 2 ins and 2 outs, what say you, AL.

Thanks for your post! You guys are with it! This is why I ask a lot of questions! My amp spec. sheet said 2 ohms stable so it should work okay. The reason I was conserned was viewing a post on amplifier temps and higher THD values, Thanks, AL.