how to wire up 2 amps to 4 speakers

Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: Car Audio
Forum Discription: Car Stereos, Amplifiers, Crossovers, Processors, Speakers, Subwoofers, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=14983
Printed Date: July 15, 2025 at 8:56 PM

Topic: how to wire up 2 amps to 4 speakers

Posted By: thuggedout3838
Subject: how to wire up 2 amps to 4 speakers
Date Posted: June 15, 2003 at 4:26 PM

i just recently purchased an 87 monte carlo and i have four kicker 12 inch L5's and i also have an rockford fosgate 200 old series all black and a kicker kx 200 and i wanted to connect both amps. how can i do this. would i need a cross over. and how can wire it.

Replies:

Posted By: esmith69
Date Posted: June 15, 2003 at 5:42 PM

Are you using the monte carlo's stock system? Is it a bose or premium system? Also, what impedence are the voice coils for each of your L5s? 4 ohms or 2 ohms? And are they DVC subs?

Finally, do either of the amps have preamp outputs? ("pass through")

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Ethan
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"Patience, persistence, and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success"
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Posted By: thuggedout3838
Date Posted: June 17, 2003 at 8:34 PM

My system consist of a pioneer DEH-P8500 head unit 4 kicker SL5 solbaric 4 ohm dual voice coil speakers. kicker kx1200 and the punch old school 200x2. yes they both do have preamp outputs.

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Posted By: wvsquirrel
Date Posted: June 17, 2003 at 11:03 PM

If your going to daisy chain the amps, run the RCA's from the headunit to the Kicker's Low Level input, then from the Kicker's Pre-Amp Output to the Rockford's Low Level input. DO NOT USE THE KICKER's "AMP STRAPPING" OUTPUTS! That feature is for connecting 2 Kicker amps, then using both amps to run 1 sub.

I only found 2 older model Rockfords that were rated 200x2. One was the 2002 model Punch 400s, the other was the 1996 model Punch 200x2. Either way, I verified their specs were the same from Rockford.

The Kicker 1200.1 is: 1200 x 1 @ 1ohm, 600 x 1 @ 2ohms, and 300 x 1 @ 4ohms.
The Rockford is: 100 x 2 @ 4ohms, 200 x 2 @ 2ohms, and 400 x 1 @ 4ohms bridged.

You have four 4ohm DVC 12" Kicker Solo-Baric L5's. Here's a breakdown of how you can wire 4ohm DVC's...

One 4ohm DVC
Can be wired into either 2 or 8 ohms

Two 4ohm DVC's
Can be wired into either 1 or 4 ohms

Three 4ohm DVC's
Can be wired into 2.67 ohms

Four 4ohm DVC's
Can be wired into either 2 or 8 ohms

I think your best bet would be to wire 2 subs per amp.
Wire the 2 on the Kicker in Parallel for a 1ohm load (see figure 1). You'll get apx 600watts to each sub (1200 total).
Wire the 2 on the RF in Series/Parallel for a 4ohm load and bridge (see figure 2). You'll get apx 200watts to each sub (400 total).

Figure 1
posted_image

Figure 2
posted_image

-------------
Squirrel
"No more Cpt. Kirk chit chat"
If its too loud, then you're too old
Donate to the12volt.com

Posted By: kenboi
Date Posted: June 20, 2003 at 10:58 AM

i'm new to this. how can you tell these are a 1 ohm and 4 ohm by looking at the figures? what if i want 2 ohms, how do i wire it? thanks in advance. posted_image

Posted By: esmith69
Date Posted: June 20, 2003 at 1:04 PM

Basically when you wire in series it doubles the ohms, and when you wire in parallel it halves the ohms. You might wanna check out this page for a little more of the technical stuff and they do a better job of explaining things than I can.

when the voice coils of each sub are wired in parallel, each sub shows an effective load of 2 ohms; when they are wired in series, each sub shows an effective load of 8 ohms. Now take that one step further and wire two SUBs together: parallel and then parallel again=1 ohm; parallel and then series=4 ohms; series and then parallel=4 ohms; series and then series again=16 ohms.

In the diagrams that WVsquirrel posted, "figure 1" is when you do parallel for the voice coils and parallel for the two subs, for a single 1-ohm load.

"figure 2" is doing the voice coils in series, and then the two subs in parallel, for a single 4-ohm load.

-------------
Ethan
-----
"Patience, persistence, and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success"
Donate to the12volt.com

Posted By: kenboi
Date Posted: June 20, 2003 at 4:20 PM

thank you so much for a quick reponse, esmith69. this forum is great! i love it. i will need to find some time to digest all this info into my brain.

one more question: what is the best setup for not too much bass? i had a shop done my subs and amps. they bridge the 2 subs and it has a lot of bass which i dont need all the time. if i unbridge them, do you think it would be better? the bass is like vibrating the whole car. i need a nice decent bass if possible. I have a digital crossover in this setup. Thanks.

Posted By: BumpNGlow
Date Posted: June 20, 2003 at 7:09 PM

"unbridging" the subs would create (99% of the time) less power from the amp, so therefore the subs would not be as loud. If you are experiencing too much bass, go for it.

Posted By: wvsquirrel
Date Posted: June 20, 2003 at 7:45 PM

Before you change anything, what is the make/model of your subs, amp, crossover, and headunit?

First things to do are turn down the bass level bass level on the headunit and turn down the gains on the amp. If your headunit has a "subwoofer" control option (adjusting the output signal to the sub) then turn it down as well.

-------------
Squirrel
"No more Cpt. Kirk chit chat"
If its too loud, then you're too old
Donate to the12volt.com

Posted By: kenboi
Date Posted: June 20, 2003 at 10:58 PM

wvsquirrel wrote:

Before you change anything, what is the make/model of your subs, amp, crossover, and headunit?
First of all, I am coming from JL 10" d4 dual voice coils 4 ohms, 250watts. I used to have 2 10" in the trunk, but one of them blew up after 6 months. I went to buy a replacement, but the sales person introduced me audiobahn 10" flame series. They said these are very powerful so I gave it a try. This is my setup in my car right now:
1. oem cd player head unit from bmw
2. diamond components (2 front, 2 rear) with 4 channel audiobahn amp.
3. 2 10" flames series with 900rms each. they are dual voice coils 4 ohms with 2 channel audiobahn amp (200X2 @ 4 Ohms 280X2 @ 2 Ohms 560X1 @ 2 Ohms bridged ).
4. audiobahn capacitor and audiobahn digital crossover. the shop did all the installation and configuration for me. i'm not sure whether they know what they were doing. i want to learn.
What I am missing right now is an EQ. Others had told me an EQ can make a huge difference in terms of sound quality with different type of music. I listen trance, hip hop, r & b, rock, etc. It hits really good and sounds normally nice with bass music, but not that good with music without much bass. What is my problem? I turn down the bass on the headunit, turn off the bass boost on both the amps. Should I set both of the amps to HPF or LPF? The amps have cross over. Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance :)
First things to do are turn down the bass level bass level on the headunit and turn down the gains on the amp. If your headunit has a "subwoofer" control option (adjusting the output signal to the sub) then turn it down as well.