DVC wiring

[bdavies11 10+ year member]

I have a mono amp rated at 900 rms @2 ohm and 500rms @ 4ohms. I also have a DVC sub rated at 400 rms.

I want to know how i should go about wiring it. Originally i was going to wire it just using 1 voice coil which would give me 500 rms at 4ohms. But i did a search on these forums about wiring wire a DVC sub using only 1 voice coil and i found that most people say its not a good idea. I could void the warantee and possibly damage the sub.

Again, the sub is rated at 400 rms so which would be the safest way to wire it.

a.) Activating only 1 voice coil and feeding it 500rms @ 4 ohms or

b.) Activating both coils and feeding it 900rms @ 2 ohms

(Of course i would turn the gains way down for option B.)

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[forbidden 10+ year member]

Neither, you have way too much power for your sub. You will fry the voicecoil due to excessive heat and the sub not being able to dissipate this heat. Hooking only one voice coil is fine, however, it also knocks down available power handling by 50%. Here is a great link to do some really good reading about this.

http://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?TID=74226&PN=1

 

[Prowler573 5,000+ posts]

Hooking only one voice coil is fine

No, no, and furthermore, no. Incredibly bad advice.

bdavies? What is the impedence on the coils to your sub? Is it a Dual 2 or a Dual 4?

 

[Crown_amps]

No, no, and furthermore, no. Incredibly bad advice.
bdavies? What is the impedence on the coils to your sub? Is it a Dual 2 or a Dual 4?

x2 you need to know the impedence of the coils before you wire a sub up

dual 2 ohm = 1 or 4 ohms

dual 4 = 2 or 8 ohms

 

[forbidden 10+ year member]

What, explain to me why it is bad advice. Read the balance of the line that you quoted from and then re-explain it. A sub, any sub, regardless of the number of voice coils can infact be ran all day long provided that the coil being used is operating within it's thermal limits. If you are overpowering that coil, it is going to fail. I have had a customer using one coil on his dvc sub for going on 8 years nowand other customers even older that this with no ill effects. This is sort of like saying that because your truck is 4 wheel drive you have to use it in 4 wheel drive all the time. Perhaps I should have verified that he has a dual 4 ohm sub first, however, I stand firm that it is fine to operate a sub on only one voice coil.

Another article for you guys to research on.

http://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?TID=74640&PN=1

 

[forbidden 10+ year member]

At the end of the day, if he is quoting RMS power rating on his amp and sub, he is going to be in the market for a new sub as this amount of power is waaaaaay too much for this sub to dissipate the heat generated by that amount of input power. Here is another link for you guys to read up on regarding input power.

http://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?TID=74226&PN=1

 

[bdavies11 10+ year member]

No, no, and furthermore, no. Incredibly bad advice.
bdavies? What is the impedence on the coils to your sub? Is it a Dual 2 or a Dual 4?

Prowler my sub is dual 4 ohm.

 

[forbidden 10+ year member]

This is what I figured it would be from your first post. Can you hook it up, sure you can. Will it fry on you in time, yes it will UNLESS you do not take the volume dial to max output and leave it there, matter of fact, not even max output. You will be safe as long as the sub has time to cool it's vicecoils. So watch the prolonged use of the sub, even in brief spurts this much power can cause damage to your sub. Once a sub is damaged it is a downward spiral from that point on. Take the time and read the links I gave you above for a better understanding.

By far the safest way to use your amp with this one sub is to wire it in a series circuit and make the load 8 ohms. This will knock the amps power back to something that the sub is going to be much better at handling and dissipating the heat generated.

In this case, it is a bad match of amp to sub if the power ratings you have given are both RMS ratings.

 

[Prowler573 5,000+ posts]

This is what I figured it would be from your first post. Can you hook it up, sure you can. Will it fry on you in time, yes it will UNLESS you do not take the volume dial to max output and leave it there, matter of fact, not even max output. You will be safe as long as the sub has time to cool it's vicecoils. So watch the prolonged use of the sub, even in brief spurts this much power can cause damage to your sub. Once a sub is damaged it is a downward spiral from that point on. Take the time and read the links I gave you above for a better understanding.

OR

he could take that Dual 4 Ohm driver, hook the coils in series for an 8 Ohm nominal load, and get approximately 250 out of his amp which will fall well within the mechanical as well as the thermal limits of his sub. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

Additionally he has more than enough amp already should he choose to expand or upgrade in the future.

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[forbidden 10+ year member]

Yup, I agree, you must have quoted that when I was still typing and added the exact same thing.

 

[bdavies11 10+ year member]

Yes, eventually i will be looking into getting a sub to handle the power from my amp just not right now. I just wanted to know if i could get away with it temporarily (probably a few months)

The other thing i was confused about was when u guys said i would only be getting half the avaialble power if i wired the sub using only 1 coil. If i used only 1 coil, wouldnt i just wire it like a SVC sub, poitive to positive and negative to negative to give me the 4 ohm load? If this is correct, why wouldnt i getting the full 500 watts from the amp?

I also did not realize i could wire the sub to get an 8 ohm load. Are u sure i can do this because my amp specs do not specify if its 8ohm stable.

 

[forbidden 10+ year member]

To answer the question, yes that is how you would wire it. Think of it as a single voice coil sub and wire appropriately. Why you would not want to do it is simple. Your sub handles 400 watts split evenly between the two voice coils. If you are only using one coil, throwing 500 watts into a coil designed for 200 watts is going to smoke that thing in a hurry.

Be safe and wire it in series. Wire voice coil 1's positive to voice coil 2's negative. Then use the unused terminals from each coil, voice coils 1's negative as the negative connection to the amp and use voice coil 2's positive as the positive connection to the amp. This makes the sub an 8 ohm load and knocks the power of the amp down to give or take the 250w rms mark. A safe amount of power that should be fine for your sub to handle.

 

[bdavies11 10+ year member]

Ok thanks very much i understand now. I was thinking that the coil could handle all 400 watts if i wired it as a SVC. And thank you for the wiring instructions as well i just want to be sure that an 8 ohm load on my amp is ok. My amp has no specs for running at 8 ohms but i assume it would be ok because i wouldnt be pushing it very hard, correct?

 

[forbidden 10+ year member]

Here is a link to the wiring diagram, option #2

http://www.the12volt.com/caraudio/woofer_configurations.asp

Yes the amp will operate at 8 ohms as well even though there is no "spec" for it.