Hi all, first i just want to say thanks for all the help that is giving on this board. I get alot of knowledge from here.
I have a DVC 4 ohm sub my AMP is stable down to 4 ohm bridged. if i run series it will bring my amp down to 2 ohm.
Now here is the question. a friend of mine said just "cancel" out one of the voice coils? He said run
1 + to the other - on one coil and then hook the sub up normal to the amp which will keep the amp at 4 ohm.
Is this true? would it hurt the sub? I have not done it yet. just does not sound right.
Thanks all.
What he is suggesting is wiring the coils in series. This will present an 8 ohm load to the amp, which will bridge to a 4 ohm load per channel on the amplifier. "Cancel"? Wha...? I think he does not know the term he wants to use.
Yes, it will be perfectly safe for the amplifier and sub to do this.
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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."
I read your post a little differently: your friend is telling you to use one of the voice coils, but "cancelling out" the other coil by connecting the terminals together is not necessary. It is simply not used at all and the terminals would be left alone. That would certainly maintain the 4 ohm load you're looking for but you have to keep in mind that since only one coil would be functioning the overall power capacity of the subwoofer would be cut in half. A much better solution is to wire the coils in series for a total 8 ohm load as haemphyst suggested and bridge that load onto the amp.
Not knowing the specs of either the sub or the amp, a guess would be that using only one coil will be a mismatch in power rating with the amp running to a bridged load. Do this test: look at the power rating of the sub and divide it in half (use RMS only). Look at the bridged power rating of the amp, is it more than that or less? If it is more, which it probably is, don't use just one coil. Although the MINIMUM load on an amp can be 4 ohms, it doesn't have to be wired that way. Use it at 8 ohms and you'll probably find it to be suitable until such time as you can trade out your sub for one that matches better (...if "better" means maximum power output...) with the two-channel amp such as a SVC 4, DVC 8 or a DVC 2.
Wiring Wizard
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Build the box so that it performs well in the worst case scenario and, in return, it will reward you at all times.