series or parallel?

[Archie1185 10+ year member]

What is the difference? What are pros and cons to both? Does wiring one way sound better for a certain system type(SQ, SPL, SQL)?

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[VereChronicus 10+ year member]

difference is the Qts and BL, Qes and BL are affected by wiring the subs one way or the other. Qts is changed because of the Qes. BL drops when wired in parallel and goes up when wired in series. For small/medium sealed, you normally want the BL lower like most of the "SQ" subs, loose suspension, huge gap, limp surround and low Fs and weak motor. For vented, if you don't have a suspension and a motor/coil with enough restoring force, you'll just launch the sub. I never wire in parallel on a DVC if at all possible using whatever equipment I have to work with.

 

[Raisedin305 5,000+ posts]

Hope this helps: http://mobile.jlaudio.com/support_pages.php?page_id=161

and no it wont sound better which way you wire it. Just gives you a different OHM LOAD.

 

[Jdizzle 10+ year member]

Hope this helps: http://mobile.jlaudio.com/support_pages.php?page_id=161
and no it wont sound better which way you wire it. Just gives you a different OHM LOAD.

x2

 

[Prowler573 5,000+ posts]

difference is the Qts and BL, Qes and BL are affected by wiring the subs one way or the other. Qts is changed because of the Qes. BL drops when wired in parallel and goes up when wired in series. For small/medium sealed, you normally want the BL lower like most of the "SQ" subs, loose suspension, huge gap, limp surround and low Fs and weak motor. For vented, if you don't have a suspension and a motor/coil with enough restoring force, you'll just launch the sub. I never wire in parallel on a DVC if at all possible using whatever equipment I have to work with.

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/hilarious.gif.02a037aad04aa96f19982b298a3d70a8.gif

Where in the world do you come by your information, friend?

At any rate ~

What is the difference? What are pros and cons to both? Does wiring one way sound better for a certain system type(SQ, SPL, SQL)?

Wiring in parallel means that you've wired multiple things (individual coils on the same speaker, multiple subwoofers, or sometimes both) to where they receive power simultaneously.

Wiring in series means you've wired multiple things (refer to above) to where they receive power one after the other in a line, or in a series.

See here for two diagrams....the top one is an example of a dual voice coil sub wired in parallel and the other is a DVC sub wired in series.

There is no real inherent advantage to one way or the other ~ it's all about wiring flexibility and presenting the optimal resistance (measured in Ohms impedence) load to whatever amplifier(s) you are using to make the best use of available power.

Example: You have a single Dual 2 Ohm subwoofer (meaning it has two 2 Ohm voice coils) and an amplifier that isn't stable at a 1 Ohm load. Well, a Dual 2 Ohm sub can be wired in parallel to make a 1 Ohm load or wired in series to make a 4 Ohm load. Since the amp you want to use won't work with a 1 Ohm load you'd want to wire your sub in series to make a 4 Ohm load so you're amp stays happy and out of protection mode.

 

[VereChronicus 10+ year member]

from designing subwoofers for a living. i don't expect many people to know that information, but i readily share it anyway. since you have your own soap box jammed so far up your exit hole, i won't bother letting you know how that works, you would not believe it anyway until i proved it to you.

 

[stones 10+ year member]

from designing subwoofers for a living. i don't expect many people to know that information, but i readily share it anyway. since you have your own soap box jammed so far up your exit hole, i won't bother letting you know how that works, you would not believe it anyway until i proved it to you.

I remember reading an an article years back that mentioned something about series being superior to parallel for wiring subs, not in terms of power of course.

I don't remember the specifics of it, if you are willing to explain it a little further I am willing to listen as it intrigues me.

 

[VereChronicus 10+ year member]

since you have a VERY nice approach, I believe i will share that information with you. Note: the vulching little Turd above will be soaking it up to use it as venom against some other innocent learner on this forum in a very short while, so if you are ok with that.....I'll proceed. heh heh

 

[Jdizzle 10+ year member]

prowler is not a vulching little turd my friend

 

[VereChronicus 10+ year member]

it is actually simple. first things first though. If you change the overall Q....being the Qts of the driver, it will perform differently. This is based on A/B comparison between coil wiring options on the same sub in the same enclosure.

We have to look at the DVC as actually being two separate subwoofers first. This is just for simplicity. Lets say they both have coils that DCR at 3.4ohms. We'll call them 4ohm subs. We start with a given and constant (in static position) B or motor force of say 8 Gauss. That is actually already very strong for todays standard big Chinese motors. The other half of the equasion is L or length of wire in the gap. Lets say the flux lines across the gap are perfectly straight at 90 degrees from the pole. (which they are not) but this will simplify the counting of the turns of wire in the gap. So each coil has say X number of turns of wire in the gap. When you use an amplifier per coil, it is the same as wiring the coils in series. When you wire the coils in series, end to end, you can see that you have 2x the windings of wire in the gap vs. just one coil.... simple. the more turns of wire you have in the gap, the higher the L portion of BL. if either B or L increase, the entire BL value will increase. When you wire the coils in parallel, the length of wire is the same as ONE coil, just because there are two runs of wire, it does not draw from the fact that they are connected at both ends, thus just being ONE thicker wire running through the gap. Now that the single parallel wired coil is double the area of the series wired coil.....the number of turns is effectively half that of the series wired coil, Halving the L value of the product: BL. This raises the QTS which we all know is recommended for sealed enclosure over a ported version. as compared to the lower Qts version of the same subwoofer with coils wired in series, which electrically is more suited for vented application than the less restoring force parallel wired sub. did that come out in english?

 

[stones 10+ year member]

since you have a VERY nice approach, I believe i will share that information with you. Note: the vulching little Turd above will be soaking it up to use it as venom against some other innocent learner on this forum in a very short while, so if you are ok with that.....I'll proceed. heh heh

Prowler's not a bad guy just give him him a chance, he really does make an effort to help new guys as much as he can. The forum just seems to be in a pretentious mood tonight, I swear the forum as a whole has its own moods sometimes.

But anyways give me the lowdown on the wiring thing in laymans terms, I myself have noticed small but positive audible differences by switching a set of subs back and forth from parralell to series. I would like to know why that is so as the general logic would state that more is better and im a little baffled on the tech of it.

EDIT- dam I type slow, thanks for the answer.

 

[VereChronicus 10+ year member]

did i make sense Stones? I am working on a large HOW TO write up for installation under Primedia coverage. using humor and modern lingo/terminology as well as comparisons to things outside audio for those that might be more into say performance than stereos, but is looking for some technical help in language that he or she can understand easily. sometimes i type bits of streaming info from my head, rather than try to type at the speed of the thought, i'm sure it'd be illegible. anyway, if you have any other questions regarding design, topology and theory as well as real world application experience, i'll be more than happy to share information with you, sir.

 

[Prowler573 5,000+ posts]

it is actually simple. first things first though. If you change the overall Q....being the Qts of the driver, it will perform differently. This is based on A/B comparison between coil wiring options on the same sub in the same enclosure.
We have to look at the DVC as actually being two separate subwoofers first. This is just for simplicity. Lets say they both have coils that DCR at 3.4ohms. We'll call them 4ohm subs. We start with a given and constant (in static position) B or motor force of say 8 Gauss. That is actually already very strong for todays standard big Chinese motors. The other half of the equasion is L or length of wire in the gap. Lets say the flux lines across the gap are perfectly straight at 90 degrees from the pole. (which they are not) but this will simplify the counting of the turns of wire in the gap. So each coil has say X number of turns of wire in the gap. When you use an amplifier per coil, it is the same as wiring the coils in series. When you wire the coils in series, end to end, you can see that you have 2x the windings of wire in the gap vs. just one coil.... simple. the more turns of wire you have in the gap, the higher the L portion of BL. if either B or L increase, the entire BL value will increase. When you wire the coils in parallel, the length of wire is the same as ONE coil, just because there are two runs of wire, it does not draw from the fact that they are connected at both ends, thus just being ONE thicker wire running through the gap. Now that the single parallel wired coil is double the area of the series wired coil.....the number of turns is effectively half that of the series wired coil, Halving the L value of the product: BL. This raises the QTS which we all know is recommended for sealed enclosure over a ported version. as compared to the lower Qts version of the same subwoofer with coils wired in series, which electrically is more suited for vented application than the less restoring force parallel wired sub. did that come out in english?

The "vulching little turd" is chewing on this. Yes, it came out in English though I find myself wishing I read Latin so I would know what your signature says.

Not saying that you're wrong ~ as obviously you are considerably better versed on the subject than I am....but if what you've posted is true, then why in the world isn't this knowledge more widespread? Seems to me that with a better working knowledge of the equipment they are using then even the most novice of users could extract just that much more performance out of what they have without too much effort....

 

[VereChronicus 10+ year member]

in retort to your plead for leniency with the guy above: sometimes i just come on a forum ready to slap someone that goes out of their way to appear more learned than the next person. we both understand that forums are filled to the gills with this type of person. sound-off competitions are slam full of them. the louder the competition, the heavier the jackass is doing the talking (from my experience). to have someone that posts something as ill informed enough to blatantly mock me, sharing the truth, whether or not he or she understands that it IS in-fact truth aside, gets me just a tad riled up. from a resting heart rate of 49bpm, i may have reached 55. humor is in my spinal fluid and i can catch humors from dry to transparent. it comes down to the fact that i am not on any forum to try and build a pedestal for myself. there are plenty of people on forums that do just that and only that. it's a self-esteem thing. people that get run over all day long and take it out on a board and any near-by newbies. like a cop that was a high school nerd. caustic when you give him a gun ya know. i think i'll apologize when that person prints that he now understands FACT and apologizes for the attempted berating of a new member.

 

[Jdizzle 10+ year member]

in retort to your plead for leniency with the guy above: sometimes i just come on a forum ready to slap someone that goes out of their way to appear more learned than the next person. we both understand that forums are filled to the gills with this type of person. sound-off competitions are slam full of them. the louder the competition, the heavier the jackass is doing the talking (from my experience). to have someone that posts something as ill informed enough to blatantly mock me, sharing the truth, whether or not he or she understands that it IS in-fact truth aside, gets me just a tad riled up. from a resting heart rate of 49bpm, i may have reached 55. humor is in my spinal fluid and i can catch humors from dry to transparent. it comes down to the fact that i am not on any forum to try and build a pedestal for myself. there are plenty of people on forums that do just that and only that. it's a self-esteem thing. people that get run over all day long and take it out on a board and any near-by newbies. like a cop that was a high school nerd. caustic when you give him a gun ya know. i think i'll apologize when that person prints that he now understands FACT and apologizes for the attempted berating of a new member.

i just think its funny that you come in and think your king dingaling (no offense intended of course)