Does wiring your DVC subs impact your enclosure design?

[gunz4me 10+ year member]

I had an interesting discussion with one of my friends tonight. He swears that wiring your coils in series versus parallel on a DVC sub will have an impact on enclosure design. I am calling BS here since the DVC subwoofers are generally designed with both coils being utilized regardless of wiring configuration.

Regardless, I wanted to know if what he said had any merit or not? If so, how could wiring my coils parallel versus series really throw off my subwoofer enclosure design that much?

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[rpfuror 10+ year member]

???

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

I don't believe it would but if it did it wouldn't be a great amount.

 

[gunz4me 10+ year member]

???

OK, I will be a little more specific. Assume we have a 12" Type R sub that is dual voice coil with dual 4 ohm coils. I want to run it at 8 ohms mono instead of 2 ohms mono for whatever silly reason. An acquaintance said that I need to know before hand whether I am wiring my coils in series for the 8 ohm load or in parallel for a two ohm load before I designed my enclosure. He said that wiring the coils in series will allow me to build a smaller enclosure. I called BS because all the modeling programs I have used (Bass Box Pro and WinISD Pro) don't change that drastically when I pick a different wiring configuration! Making matters worse, we were talking about a SEALED enclosure!

The only major difference I could think of would be if only ONE coil were utilized.

 

[JonJeepGuy 10+ year member]

Unless your going to be running a second sub on the same amp, running an 8ohm load wont help you at all, actually just the opposite, you not be utilizing the RMS power the amp can push at a normal operation of 4 ohms, or the increased power it can push at 2 ohms.

The only reasons you would want to put your sub in 8ohm are the following

1. Your tring to avoid possible melt downs running in a 2ohm load... Most Mono amps can run in a 2ohm mode fine as long as your pushing the RMS power needed to the sub your driving (match the specs) and you have a good power supply not dropping no more lower than 13.3 volts during peak performance.

Other wise get a better amp.

2. Your going to run a second DVC sub on the same amp, and the amp does not support 1 ohm loads, then you WOULD want to run the subs in 8ohm loads so the amp sees 4 ohms if you have them on a mono amp.

Either way... the only differance the 8ohm load will present as far as the box, but really has nothing to do with it.. will be a decreased output from the sub.. being the amp will be not pushing to its full potential..

My advise is if your running a mono amp.. just run in a 2ohm load and use the power your amp has.. other wise your will be wasting power...

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

He's asking if wiring the same sub differently will change the box specifications.

 

[JonJeepGuy 10+ year member]

LOL..

short answer:

No.. the Ohm load makes no differance to the box.. only makes a differance to the amp, "configures" for a lack of better terms the amp on what its going to push out..

As long as yoru box is built solid and is the same airspace of what the OEM calls for your should be good.. but wire in 2ohm load if your amp can handle it.. youll be glad you did.

 

[gunz4me 10+ year member]

LOL..
short answer:

No.. the Ohm load makes no differance to the box.. only makes a differance to the amp, "configures" for a lack of better terms the amp on what its going to push out..

As long as yoru box is built solid and is the same airspace of what the OEM calls for your should be good.. but wire in 2ohm load if your amp can handle it.. youll be glad you did.

:fyi:I do have TIPS modified Linear Power amplifiers that will produce FULL POWER @ 8 ohms bridged or 4 ohms stereo!

Also, I was just talking about a hypothetical situation. The only thing I know of that has an impact on a DVC subwoofer is if you only wire ONE of the coils, and even then, I don't think it makes that much of a difference with regards to enclosure size.

ETA: This whole thing started because I need to build an acoustical suspension (i.e. sealed) enclosure that resonates @ 70 Hz to utilize an electronic feedback controller in conjunction with a specific power amplifier that will only run @ 4 ohms mono or 2 ohms stereo.

 

[JonJeepGuy 10+ year member]

Your correct.. if the box is built to oem spec and is a solid box, the only differance you would see would be the lack of power from your hyppthetical situation of only 1 coil hooked up , or in 8ohm vs 4 ohm.. and so..

but if your amp "pushes the same no matter what setup its in" then it doesnt really matter being either way...

Cheers

 

[Alex JB 10+ year member]

I know using like left ch to one coil and right ch to the other coil is risky as the loads may not be equal (or mirrored if 180 deg out of phase).

But I thought only driving one coil on a DVC was bad too?

 

[Rashaddd 5,000+ posts]

no.

 

[Lakota 5,000+ posts]

Generally, it does. When wiring subs in parallel you need two jumpers, one to jump the positives together and another to jump the negatives together. When wiring subs in series, you only need one jumper so that you can jump the a positive and negative together from each coil. Say that a typical jumper is about 10 inches long and is of 10 gauge (estimate from jacket thickness). 10 gauge = .1019 in in diameter. If we do a little geometry, (3.14)(.1019/2)^2(10) = 1.59983 in^3. Convert that to cubic feet, 1.59983/1728 = 0.0009 ft^3. This amount of volume should be accounted for when calculating enclosure volume after displacement and port tuning. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[TnT_Sounds 10+ year member]

This is a good read up about why wiring in series is a good decision. Its quite long but its true and good information.

http://tinyurl.com/7xu8ro