A question about wiring DVC subs

[grampi 10+ year member]

My 12" sub has dual 2 ohm vc's. I use 2 channels of a 4 channel amp to power it. The amp produces 300 watts bridged into a 4 ohm load, or 150 watts per channel into 2 ohms. Since the sub would be getting the same amount of power whether I wired in mono or stereo, which way is the best way to wire it and why?

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[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

series to get to 4ohms

 

[grampi 10+ year member]

series to get to 4ohms

That doesn't answer my question. Maybe I didn't word it very well. I know if I'm going to be wiring the sub for my amp in the bridged mode, it'll have to be wired in series to get the 4 ohms. I'm wondering if it's more beneficial to wire it in series for bridged, or just run the amp in stereo and connect each channel to each VC. Either way the sub will be getting the same amount of power, but in the bridged mode the sub will be receiving a mono signal, and in the stereo mode the sub will get a stereo signal. Which is best?

 

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

i dont think it will matter. running each vc independently may make for better efficiency (possibly?)

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

It wont make any difference. 'Bridging' an amp simply means the impedance load is divided between both channels, and output from both is cumulative. So to the amplifier, bridged 4ohm mono is EXACTLY the same thing as 2ohm stereo.

 

[grampi 10+ year member]

I think I remember reading somewhere that running each VC off of a separate stereo channel (as opposed to running them both off of a single bridged input) could actually cause some distortion because there could actually be some slight differences between the left and right channel's inputs. Is that just bunk?

 

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

maybe sub amps are called "mono" block for a reason? i dunno, honestly

 

[grampi 10+ year member]

maybe sub amps are called "mono" block for a reason? i dunno, honestly

They are. It's because they can only be used in a mono configuration. They can't be used for stereo. That doesn't necessarily mean it's better to run a sub in mono instead of running it in stereo.

 

[jdc753 10+ year member]

I would wire the sub in a mono config as you stated, seeing it will be getting the same power either way. This way you won't have to worry about tweaking 2 seperate gain knobs, filters, ect. I wouldn't want one coil to be getting anything different than the other coil. With a DMM you could get each channel pretty close but I still would feel better if I had the option to do it mono.