How many Ohms am I running?

[DOO 10+ year member]

I have two Rockford Fosgate HE2 12" subs (4 ohm DVC) running off an old PG two channel amp. Each sub is wired series/parallel. My question is when I hook the amp up to the box, since each sub is wired to a 4 ohm load each, do i see a final ohm load of 8 (doubled) or 4 (halved). I have searched but have not been able to find the answer. Thanks.

Click to read more...

 

[Randy Savage 5,000+ posts]

If they are DVC 4 ohm coils, each woofer can be wired to 8 or 2 ohms.

If you are running them series/parallel together, that would be a 4 ohm final load.

 

[DOO 10+ year member]

i am confused. how do i wire them for a two ohm load?

 

[Chevillac 5,000+ posts]

http://www.jlaudio.com/tutorials/wiring/index.html#2dvcsp

check that out, after you wire one sub in 2 ohms, then the other the same way. Then when you wire them together then to the amp the final load the amp sees will be 4 ohms. Did i make any sense?

C

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

i am confused. how do i wire them for a two ohm load?

You can't wire them together for a final 2ohm load, you can only wire each individual sub to a 2ohm load.

 

[DOO 10+ year member]

ok, so if i wire each sub to 2 ohms each, when i connect the amp i add the ohm loads then i'll get 4 ohms (what the amp is seeing) so the only way to get a 2 ohm load to the amp is to run one amp for each sub?

 

[Norcalracer283 10+ year member]

I think if you wire two DVC 4 ohm subs in series parallel in a 2 channel amp, you get a 2 ohm load.....

 

[joshpoints 10+ year member]

What is the mathematical way of determining it?

 

[somekook 10+ year member]

ok, so if i wire each sub to 2 ohms each, when i connect the amp i add the ohm loads then i'll get 4 ohms (what the amp is seeing) so the only way to get a 2 ohm load to the amp is to run one amp for each sub?

if you have a 2 channel amp it is possible to hook up each sub to its own channel and get a 2 ohm load. so..

you could bridge the amp at 1 ohm, 4 ohms, or 16 ohms.

or you could use both channels to get 2 ohms, or 8 ohms.

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

I think if you wire two DVC 4 ohm subs in series parallel in a 2 channel amp, you get a 2 ohm load.....

If you wire two DVC 4ohm subs in series parallel you get a 4ohm load (each sub in parallel is a 2ohm load, then series them together for a 4ohm load). If you bridge a 2 channel amp to them, then each channel on the amp "sees" a 2ohm load, but it is still a 4ohm mono load. It doesn't matterwhat subs are used.....when you bridge an amp each channel will "see" half of the load, but that doesn't change what the actual load is. That's why an amps bridged 4ohm rating is the sum of both channels 2ohm rating (an amp rated 200w x 2 @ 2ohm is rated 400w x 1 @ 4ohm)