2 Amps, 4 Subs- Help please.

[Krown 10+ year member]

My friend and I are undergoing a new system for his car. We have 2 Cadence DCA 1600.1's and 4 Soundstream VGW-12's to put in. The 12's are dual 4 ohm, and the amps are capable of 3200watts at 2ohm strapped. The box these subs are going in has a terminal for each chamber so my question is, how the **** do we wire this up? Could somebody possibly create a diagram for us, incuding the strapping of the amps? I will tip somebody a couple bucks for their time via paypal if you want. Thanks.

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[ultimate157 5,000+ posts]

I assume you mean 1 terminal for each sub?

Drop all the subs down to 2 ohms, connect to the terminal. Wire 2 pair of those in series, then those two wires to the amp for 2 ohms.

I'll draw a diagram.

Edit: Drawn in a few minutes on a touchpad FTL.

 

[Krown 10+ year member]

Does anyone know what I do with the wires when connecting to the amps?

 

[hrtbrk1 5,000+ posts]

hey man i suggest u try to drill holes in the side...its much better cuz the tcups(terminal cups) add part of a load...or resistance...something like that...as in its like a break from sub to amp so yeah...um ill try to draw up something for u in a bit

 

[hrtbrk1 5,000+ posts]

here man follow these steps...the diagram is pretty simple its just i used 2 many colors...and i didnt draw the subs...so lets start of with the subs...sorry it dont look 2 good...buttah yeah...step one...drill holes on the box...just small enough for the wires to go thru...(red and green circle thing on the pic)

2.bridge one + and one - on each sub...use + on one coil and the - on the other coil.(blue wire)

3. wire all the positives together and make the last one come out of the tcup(brown wire)

4. wire all the negatives together and make the last one come out of the same tcup(green wire)

now to the amps...set one amp to master and the other one to slave...make one phase shift 0 and the other one 180(im not too sure on this one.) now...using a long wire...connect both negatives of each amp....(skinny brown wire)

now using the positive of the master amp...connect the + sub wire to that(skinny brown wire)

and using the positive of the slave amp...connect the - sub wire to that(other skinny brown wire)...thats one way of doing that...

heres the pic...i recommend you seal the tcups tight...and u might actually just seal them really tight and drill one more hole so the sub and amp can directly be wired...

^^^diagram

 

[hrtbrk1 5,000+ posts]

w8 a minute...u dnt need to strap the amps...just use 2 subs for one amp each...that amp is about 1600wrms at one ohm and those subs are about 600wrms each...2 of them can be run to one ohm...all you gotta do is set the gains properly....get at me if thats wut u wanna do and ill draw it up

 

[ultimate157 5,000+ posts]

There is nothing wrong with using terminal cups... The resistance they add to the circuit is so small its negligible.

 

[hrtbrk1 5,000+ posts]

oh well..ive had bad experience with them

 

[Krown 10+ year member]

Maybe I will just leave them unstrapped and do two subs per amp. Which method, if any, would be more efficient though?

 

[ultimate157 5,000+ posts]

Maybe I will just leave them unstrapped and do two subs per amp. Which method, if any, would be more efficient though?

Either way both amps will be seeing a 1 ohm load, so theoretically they would be the same.

 

[Krown 10+ year member]

Either way both amps will be seeing a 1 ohm load, so theoretically they would be the same.

If I strap them they will see a 2ohm load, right? The amps are rated at 3200wrms @ 2ohms strapped, and four dual 4ohm subs create a 2ohm load (the way I'm going to wire them).

 

[hrtbrk1 5,000+ posts]

whatever floats ure boat

 

[ultimate157 5,000+ posts]

If I strap them they will see a 2ohm load, right? The amps are rated at 3200wrms @ 2ohms strapped, and four dual 4ohm subs create a 2ohm load (the way I'm going to wire them).

you would be presenting a 2 ohm load to BOTH amps, but each one would see half of that for a 1 ohm nominal.