Wiring only one voice coil?

[IMPP 10+ year member]

What happens when u only wire one voice coil on a dual 4 ohm sub.?

Does it make it only hold half as much power, and is it also possible to wire tha possitive of one voice coil with the negative of tha other?

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[maylar 10+ year member]

You can wire a DVC 4 ohm sub for either 2 ohms (VC's in paralel) or 8 ogms (series). If you only use 1 coil it cuts the power handling capacity of the sub in half.

 

[jlman 10+ year member]

Never ever only run one coil on your sub it will casue woofer failure.

 

[booX2 10+ year member]

You should never run just one VC on a DVC. Go to JL AUDIO.com and theres wireing diagrams there to show how to wire the a DVC . But to make it just a 4ohm's singal sub you hook speaker wire to one side to the + and the other side to the - and jump the other 2 useing one wire from + to -.

 

[SuckMikeHawk23 10+ year member]

But to make it just a 4ohm's singal sub you hook speaker wire to one side to the + and the other side to the - and jump the other 2 useing one wire from + to -.

sounds like ur trying to tell him to wire his subs in a series. if he has 4 ohm subs, this will create 8 ohms, but if he has 2 ohm subs, then this will create a 4ohm load. so u cant really tell him how to wire it unless u kno how many ohms his subs are.

 

[maylar 10+ year member]

Originally posted by jlman Never ever only run one coil on your sub it will casue woofer failure.

NOT true. As long as you stay within 1/2 the rated power of the sub. Which, of course, is a major waste of money & potential.

 

[taylor 10+ year member]

YES it will cause woofer failure, i work at a shop i have seen it before, if you hook up only one coil it will cause the woofer to shift and scrape the VC which will cause it to melt, JL even voids warranty if you do that, never ever run one VC on a DVC sub!!!

 

[maylar 10+ year member]

Maybe it depends on the sub then. The documentation I have on some Kicker 8's say it's OK but that the power rating is cut in half. An article I read on audiomag.com says it's OK too. JL says definitely not.

So I guess the answer is "A definite maybe".

 

[jellydime 10+ year member]

I don't understand why anyone would even think about only using one voice coil!!! DVC subs are so versatile you can get nearly any load you want with them (wiring in series, parallel, or a parallel series) //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/banghead.gif.8606515f668c74f6de0281deb475b6fd.gif//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/nono.gif.eca61d170185779e0921b0faa9704973.gif//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/eek.gif.771b7a90cf45cabdc554ff1121c21c4a.gif

 

[jlaine 10+ year member]

Originally posted by maylar Maybe it depends on the sub then. The documentation I have on some Kicker 8's say it's OK but that the power rating is cut in half. An article I read on audiomag.com says it's OK too. JL says definitely not.

 

So I guess the answer is "A definite maybe".

A definite yes is mine. Don't fret about running a DVC as an SVC, there is actually some rather excellent results from doing so if you are looking for the ability to "tweak" the woofer in a specific box.

A thurough explanation of the happenings can be found here: http://www.adireaudio.com/tech_papers/rdo_operation.htm

Nothing like being able to dial in your own Qts as you go... //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

There is NO negative effects like "scraping of the coil" unless the driver was a defect to begin with. Just be mindful of how much power you are throwing into the particular driver.

 

[taylor 10+ year member]

yes it will scrape the coil... Some guys with large subs run an amp per VC on a DVC. If one of the amps is slightly off it will do the same damage, i have seen it happen to a juggernaut...the guy was running 2 800.2's (1 per coil) and it has fried. That is why you use an oscilloscope to make sure you amps are putting out the exact amount of power per VC when you do that.

A guy brought 2 12inch type s into my work (A&B sound) and he said both the subs were blown, he even admitted to hooking up only 1 VC on each sub.

 

[jlaine 10+ year member]

Originally posted by taylor yes it will scrape the coil... Some guys with large subs run an amp per VC on a DVC. If one of the amps is slightly off it will do the same damage, i have seen it happen to a juggernaut...the guy was running 2 800.2's (1 per coil) and it has fried. That is why you use an oscilloscope to make sure you amps are putting out the exact amount of power per VC when you do that.

 

A guy brought 2 12inch type s into my work (A&B sound) and he said both the subs were blown, he even admitted to hooking up only 1 VC on each sub.

This is rather interesting. I'd like to know how a magnetic propulsion forward of two different values would cause a voice coil (which is locked in place by not only the spider, but the surround) to skew, cause a force shift, and grind against the pole piece (can't assume the coil, there is typically too much airgap.)

Sorry- but your commentary is incorrect. If needs be, I will grab a brahma and power it with two different power sources of different levels to prove that this commentary is incorrect. The scraping of the juggernaut you heard after he blew it is from the windings of the coil being loose after burning up and likely scraping against the top plate of the subwoofer, the likely failure of the other subs is from the individual exceeding the power rating of a single coil- hence installer/user error. This was not a fault of using unmatched signal sources. You can wire two amps with one out of phase with a DVC sub and not cause ANY damage if you keep the coil within it's thermal limitations. That is all it boils down to, is thermal limitations of the coil, and in some rare cases, manufacturer defect.

 

[maylar 10+ year member]

Originally posted by jellydime I don't understand why anyone would even think about only using one voice coil!!! DVC subs are so versatile you can get nearly any load you want with them (wiring in series, parallel, or a parallel series)

There's always the unforseen exception. Let's say you have a dual 4 ohm sub rated for 350 watts and a 2 channel amp that runs 150 watts into 4 ohms bridged but is not 2 ohm stable. If you wire the sub in series for 8 ohms you'll get a whoppin' 75 watts. Or use only 1 VC and get 150.

 

[taylor 10+ year member]

Well i'm pretty sure jl doesn't void warranty on subs if you only run 1 VC on their DVC's for no reason....

this is how you acheive your 4 ohm load if you buy two dvcs you can get your 4 ohm load this way. With the coils wired in series and the speakers wired in paralell, 2 dual 4 ohm speakers will present a 4 ohm load...

 

[jlman 10+ year member]

No actully Jl does void warrentys on thier subs if you do that. My friends w6 did that and they would not replace it so he was so **** in the hole.