Putting one amp on each voice coil

[danpenksa 10+ year member]

If i have a DUAL 2 ohm voice coil sub, can I hook up one amp to each VC. If so, it would yield a 2ohm load on the amp, correct?

I have heard that if you do that, the gains must be IDENTICALLY matched or you will blow the sub...However, if the amps are strappable/linkable, would that make a difference in this situation? I thought that when you strap amps, the sub (in this case) would then yield a 1OHM load on the amps--which is what i don't want

Basically, i want to use two amps stable only to 2 ohms and a dual 2 ohm voicecoil sub...Is this possible and how is it done

thanks in advance

dp

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[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

Assuming it is 2ohm per coil, yes that is fine to run one coil per amplifier and yes it would present a 2ohm load to each amplifier.

Having the gains mismatched won't cause the sub to be damaged (unless one was set to extreme clipping), but you wouldn't extract full performance from the subwoofer if they were significantly different.

As for strapping.....if you wired the coils in series for a net 4ohm load then strapped a pair of amplifiers to the "single load" (4ohm) each amplifier would "see" a 2ohm load. Which is accomplishing the same thing as you are doing now (assuming you are talking about the same amplifiers when you were asking about strapping).

If you wired it to a 1ohm load (coils in parallel) and strapped a pair of amps to the subwoofer then each amp would see a .5ohm load.

 

[Ed Lester 10+ year member]

yes, you can put one 2ohm stable amp on each voice coil. Each amp will have a 2 ohm load.

You can also connect the two voice coils in parallel for a single one ohm load. You can then either use a single one ohm stable amp to this load, or strap a pair of amps to this one ohm load. However, each strapped amp will essentially have a half ohm load.

When each voice coil has its own amp the gains must be matched perfectly, the sub may not blow if they are not, but performance will suffer greatly.

 

[BassAddictJ 5,000+ posts]

if you go to match the gains you'll set them with a DMM at low volume on tones. use a few different tones and test each one. you want to keep them as close to matched as possible.

if you do it right you can keep the voltages within .1v of each other. but you dont want them more than 1v off from each other.

 

[dooyooknow 10+ year member]

yes, you can put one 2ohm stable amp on each voice coil. Each amp will have a 2 ohm load.
You can also connect the two voice coils in parallel for a single one ohm load. You can then either use a single one ohm stable amp to this load, or strap a pair of amps to this one ohm load. However, each strapped amp will essentially have a half ohm load.

When each voice coil has its own amp the gains must be matched perfectly, the sub may not blow if they are not, but performance will suffer greatly.

Same thing I've been told.