Wiring an amp to subs

Charger14 · Post by **Charger14** » 09 Mar 2008, 18:39

Hi there all

I recently got some sound for my car (yay) its two Pioneer 10" 800w DVC's and a temporary Audiobank 1000W 4ch amp, when i get money again I'll buy a bigger amp for subs and and get a set of splits to run off the current one.

Right, I just want to find out whats the best way to wire the subs to the amp, THIS is how they're currently wired, but I see on my amp that it runs 80W x 4 RMS at 2 ohm and 50W x 4 at 4 ohm, so what I wondered is would it be better to perhaps wire it like THIS o lower the load a bit and get some more power out of it? At the same time I'm not sure since the second one is for a 2ch amp and I don't wana damage my amp...

Advice?

naughty · Post by **naughty** » 09 Mar 2008, 18:55

okay - firstly the firast diagram is bridging the amp channels - so it doesnt matter what it puts out into 4 channels - it is being bridged into 2 channels - in this configuration a 4 channel amp becomes a 2 chanel amp but it is only capable of woring at 4 ohm impedances

so the first configuration where the sbs are being connected in series is correct to keep the impedance high - if you parrallel the subs and get the impedance low you will most likely land up overheating your amp - and causing the damage you wish to avoid

another problem you have is that if you series the voice coils and they are both 4 ohm voicecoils you do get the impedance up to 8ohms which only draws half the power that the sub will normally draw if it had been a single voice coils sub

so IMHO the only way you can change anything is to either replace the subs or the amps - you cannot change wiring options to get more out of either without damaging something

but actually give us the brand and exact model numbers of both the subs and the amp so we can see what all of those things are really capable off - but from your descriptions you want to squeeze milk from a stone it seems - and that will not work

EDIT : sorry - you have stated the brands - but give us the model numbers so we can look at the impedances of the sub and also the power and impedance capabilities of the amp

Charger14 · Post by **Charger14** » 09 Mar 2008, 19:07

Hmm,ok i see, yeah wanted to see what I could get out of what I have now till I get money again, I know it's not ideal and the subs are quite underpowered at the mo but like I say, its a temporary thing...

Ok the subs are The Pioneer TSW256DVC. It's an 800W DVC sub that runs 4 ohm according to whats printed on it...

Amp is an Audiobank Pro 1000W 4ch, best I can offer is an Autostyle LINK for it.

PureFire · Post by **PureFire** » 09 Mar 2008, 19:12

naughty will definately help you in understanding car audio!
he is one very knowledgable guy!
so really listen to the advice he gives!
also, you might want to check out the speed and sound forums for more literature

naughty · Post by **naughty** » 11 Mar 2008, 12:16

okay - what you need to understand that if they say the sub is a 4 ohm sub and it has dual voice coils then the impedance will change because that is two voicecoils of 4 ohm each - connect them together in any way and that changes the impedance accordingly

in order to connect it you have a few options

1) you could run a two channel amp - then you basically run each voice coil with a channel apiece - but you need to make sure its a mono signal and that both amp channels output the same signal - or they could land up conflicting with each other

2) the other option is to connect the voice coils and to run a single channel into the sub - which is where you will be actually changing the impedance of the sub - this can be done in the following configurations

A) series - which means that the voice coils are connected to each other in the manner of your first diagram - two 4 ohm voice coils will present an impedance of 8 ohms to the amplifier - but presenting that load to the amp will halve the actual power it outputs which is why you feel it isnt powerful

b) parallel - which is like your second diagram - but this presents a load of 2 ohms to the amplifier - which in theory starts to double the amount of power the amp produces - but in your case you are bridging 4 channels into two - most amps are not stable into 2 ohms when bridged - so you need a two channel amp which is stable into 2 ohms for your current subs

you have two options if you wish to change something ie change the speakers so that you have dual 2 ohm voicecoils so that the series impedance becomes 4ohms which should work better with that amp - or if you wish to connect the subs that you have now into parallel then you need to change the amp into a two channel amp which is stable into 2 ohm impedances

what you have now is incapable of being connected in any manner which will give you an improvement - you could do it in theory - but you will land up damaging either the speakers or the amp ie if you drop the impedance to 2 ohms the amp will most likely overheat and die

so you chose your components incorrectly from the beginning ie they are mismatched which shows that when you buy a system you need to plan yourself out very carefully and get components that are properly matched - if you get the wrong stuff then eventually it works out more expensive to replace stuff that was mismatched and even more so when you consider that you wont get back what you initially paid for something

you have two options with what you have

1) leave it as is and accept that its underperforming - but it will still work
2) wire it in a manner that improves performance - but most likely will kill most of your components within a few months - and give you total instability in the times inbetween ie dead batteries and amp cutting off and system switching off randomly etc etc etc

its your call - i would just leave it as is until i can afford to sort the situation out - and then just buy a relevant amp to run the subs to their full potential - you can get plenty of cheap amps which can do this ie brands like calibra or starsound etc - but before buying get advice from people who know about these things as to which is the best amp to buy ie dont jump into the cheapest product you can buy - cos you may land in the same situation again

maestro_za · Post by **maestro_za** » 11 Mar 2008, 12:48

I ran a 1000W SVC Pioneer 12" sub off the rear channels of a 4-channel. The amp blew after 3 months.

I fear for that 2 sub install of Charger14. The load might fry it after not too long. Rather run 1 sub until you can afford a proper amp (ideally a monoblock).

My 0.02c

naughty · Post by **naughty** » 11 Mar 2008, 13:25

maestro_za wrote:I ran a 1000W SVC Pioneer 12" sub off the rear channels of a 4-channel. The amp blew after 3 months.

I fear for that 2 sub install of Charger14. The load might fry it after not too long. Rather run 1 sub until you can afford a proper amp (ideally a monoblock).

My 0.02c

i suppose that it would depend on the impedance - if you had the impedance matched for that SVC ie 4 ohms for the sub with an amp that bridges to 4 ohms then the only way you would fry the amp is if you dont set the gains properly - or the amp isnt of decent build quality

but hey yep i think that you are correct about charger14's setup - it will not handle any other wiring setup besides what he is already doing - anything different and the stuff wont last too long - problem though in running one sub is that he has a 4 channel amp - and running one sub only is a little more complicated than just removing one sub from the loop - he will need some wiring experience and will need to buy splitters for the rca cables and will need to know how to run bridged channels of the amp into each voicecoil - best left to pro's - otherwise goodbye amp and sub