Dual Voice Coil Sub

I wanted to know if it is possible to run a 4-channel (Legacy 1200watt) amplifier on a dual voice coil subwoofer (Ma Audio 15" 800watt). Each coil is 4 ohms which is perfectly matched with the amp's impedance when the amp's four channels are bridged in to two which gives four ohms each two channels bridged. I wanted to know if it is ok to run one voice coil with a different wattage than the other coil.

I think maybe wvsquirrel meant to say "different input signals" instead of "different input wattages", as they are not the same thing.  I guess a difference in wattage kinda does mean both signals are not gonna be the same depending on how you look at it.  But not in such a way that would make one voice coil cancel out the other as would occur if you had different signals.  At least that's the way I look at it.

I got the sense from the JL page and from personal experience that it's more harmful when the signals are completely different (left channel and right channel of a stereo input, for example) than when they are both summed mono but possibly at slightly different volume/gain levels.  As the last paragraph of that page says:

"If a dual voice coil subwoofer must be wired to two independent channels, the inputs to both channels should ideally be the same (summed mono) and every effort should be made to match the gains of both channels as closely as possible."

Here is the bottom line:  As far as I know, 4-channel amps cannot be bridged in such a way as to offer a single output.  You can bridge the 2 front channels to a 4-ohm load and the 2 rear channels to another 4-ohm load, but you can't take that one step further and bridge them again.  This is why when you see the specs for a 4-channel amp they'll show you power ratings for 4-channel setups and 2-channel setups, but not 1-channel setups.

What this means for you is that in order to hook up your DVC sub to the 4-channel amp and be able to fully utilize all 4 channels of the amp's power, one voice coil has to run off of the front channels and another voice coil off of the rear channels.  Remember that when you hook it up in this manner, the amp is taking care of summing up the left and right channels into a single bridged output for each set of channels (front and rear).  Almost all 4-channel amps do not have separate left and right gain controls; therefore the only thing you really have to take care of is making sure those front/rear gains are set to the same.

The ideal situation is to have a 2-channel amp and either two 4-ohm DVC subs (2 ohm stereo load) or one 2-ohm DVC sub (4 ohm mono load).  If you can return the amp and sub then you might want to think about doing that as it really is the simplest and best way to hook it up.  But i realize that a lot of times people, for whatever reason, are unable to return/exchange equipment and that's why I'm trying to inform you of all possibilities.

Whatever you decide to do, be sure to let us all know how it turns out.

Thanks for the suggestion.  I have no idea why I didn't at least mention mono amps in my reply!