series or parallel .... does it matter past ohms?

[vehementSPL 10+ year member]

This is one area I am not 100 percent sure in. I am rewiring my subs and have a few options

Either way it will be 8 subs with 8 speaker leads out ... here are the two options

Parallel each set of coils DVC 4's so each speaker is 2 ohms

I am running two strapped pairs of amps

So would have to parallel two 2 ohm leads for a 1 ohm load. Then take two 1 ohm leads and series them up to 2 ohm for a strapped pair (that takes care of 4 speakers, would just do the same for the other pair of strapped amps and 4 speakers).. now option two

Still run 8 leads out of the box. Series each coil to get 8 ohm leads out. And just take 4 8 ohm leads and parallel them all together to come down to 2 ohms per strapped pair. Now for sure one advantage to this way is ease of doing and for every positive note, it don't have to travel through tons of extra feet of speaker wire due to doing series right by the amp. So through every positive/neg pulse in the 1st method it has to travel through the 7 foot lead for the pos then down the neg then back up the other pos then down the neg to get back to the amp (just a lot of extra wire) Obviously option 2 sounds like the better option. But is there any negatives to option 2 and are their any other negatives to option 1.

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[vehementSPL 10+ year member]

anybody?

 

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

should be the same either way. if i read correctly.

 

[vehementSPL 10+ year member]

Yeah I would think so except more wire to travel through on the option 1. I am pretty sure I am going to option two. But just curious while I was doing it

 

[vehementSPL 10+ year member]

Well I am going to leave to go do it. still feel free to chime in anybody still would be curious to know

 

[fasfocus00 5,000+ posts]

you can't go from series to parallel back to series. mathamatically it makes sense but if doesn't work according to ohm's law. if i'm reading it correctly...

 

[I Like Waffle]

I read somewhere that wiring VCs in series increases the BL (motor strength i think) and increases efficiency for some reason. I searched and couldnt find anything though, perhaps you can turn something up.

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

Option 2. Seems to me it would just be easier to do.

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

I read somewhere that wiring VCs in series increases the BL (motor strength i think) and increases efficiency for some reason. I searched and couldnt find anything though, perhaps you can turn something up.

It does but it also limits the power output of your amp.

 

[vehementSPL 10+ year member]

you can't go from series to parallel back to series. mathamatically it makes sense but if doesn't work according to ohm's law. if i'm reading it correctly...

Done it, tested it and tested at the ohm it came out to mathematically . I suppose it could come out wrong with voltage to the circuit but at rest it does come out correct

 

[thch 10+ year member]

its more of an issue with different speakers or different boxes for those speakers. I typically try to wire in series things that are most similar. differences are likely small.

for 8 woofers, you probably don't need to strap amplifiers either. you should be able to just wire the correct combo of speakers to each amp. In this case, each amp could be connected to a 1ohm load. This will provide the same power to the speakers, improves reliability (just from the "if an amp goes bad it's effects are limited" sense), and makes the wiring easier to follow. It also removes all series connections, making things simpler yet.

 

[Papermaker85 5,000+ posts]

where you been chris?

wiring them in series does affect the woofer, but its nohting to be concerned unless your tweaking the system for world records.. even then its no more than 1/10 of a DB... you loose a tad bit of motor strength...

 

[mcsoul 10+ year member]

its more of an issue with different speakers or different boxes for those speakers. I typically try to wire in series things that are most similar. differences are likely small.
for 8 woofers, you probably don't need to strap amplifiers either. you should be able to just wire the correct combo of speakers to each amp. In this case, each amp could be connected to a 1ohm load. This will provide the same power to the speakers, improves reliability (just from the "if an amp goes bad it's effects are limited" sense), and makes the wiring easier to follow. It also removes all series connections, making things simpler yet.

Screw failure fencing. Try to wire them to two 1 ohm output terminal cups, go 2 ohms strapped for daily; rewire to .5 ohms for 7-10 second burps. Strapping the amps pretty much guarantees each woofer will get the same exact power (as close as impedance variances will allow).

 

[01 S 10 10+ year member]

option 2

i dont like to parallel first and series second because if a sub or subs were to fail, you would lower your ohm load in some situations, possibly causing damage to your amp or overpowering the rest of the subs. say you have 2 DVC 2 ohm subs, and you parallel each sub down to 1 ohm each. then series the subs together up to a 2 ohm final load and your amp is 2 ohm stable. so if one of those subs goes out, your now running the amp at 1 ohm possibly causing damage to it or overpowering the other sub.

series first, parallel last