1 amp to 3 subs

HI all

i have a 4ch 1200Watt legacy amplifier and i am trying to hood that up with three 10s, thumps, 4 ohms each. 

wat i did was that i put all the speakers in parallel, meaning take all positives from the speakers join them together and hook that up to the amp and the same for negatives.   So basically the amp is bridged.

i was wondering that the amp is 2ohms per channel and 8 ohms bridged and my woofers are 4+4+4=12ohms. would that be ok?

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A.W.K

What you did was not right. The parallel wiring you did made the resistance go down to 1.33 ohms if all the wires are connected to one (-) and one (+) terminal on the amp. Not too many amps out on the market can handle a 1- 1.33 ohm load effectively. If you want a 12 ohm load wire the subs from (-) to (+)to (-) to (+) to (-) to (+) and to the amp

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Jeff
Velocity Custom Home Theater
Mobile Audio/Video Specialist
Morden, Manitoba CANADA

ANd how would i have the amp setup? Since its four channels, how could i bridge it so i have one output from those four channels and still get four ohms? PS. The amp's each channel is 2-ohm stable.

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A.W.K

Depends on how your amp is setup.  If it is only bridgeable down to 2 channels then you are kinda screwed....  In that case, your only options are to keep it on 4 channel, and leave one channel open; or bridge it into 2 channels, then use one of the 2 channels for all three speakers.

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Are you making an enclosure with 3 chambers or are all three subs sharing one chamber ??

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Jeff
Velocity Custom Home Theater
Mobile Audio/Video Specialist
Morden, Manitoba CANADA

jeff  the speakers are sharing one chamber

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A.W.K

dang it... I typed everything up, hit send, and it's not there....

Anyways, in the words of Elmer Fudd:  vewwy vewwy bad.

You don't want to run speakers in series if they are sharing a chamber.  It can cause problems.

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In order to help fully, we need the make and model of the amp. Some do drive into 1.33 ohms but the problem you will have is inefficiency and the amp running hot (and shutting down early).

If its a class D amp it should be OK.

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JimF

you could pick up another sub and build a new box. then you can bridge 2 channels to 2 ohm for 2 10's and 2 channels to 2 other 10's at 2 ohms, and it should be louder than 3 and your using the amp to its full potential.

I would switch (initially) to an all series setup. If that amp really has the power of 1200watts, then this will work just fine. Run the amp + to speaker 1+, then speaker 1 - to speaker 2+, speaker 2 - to speaker 3+, speaker 3 - back to amp - . I hope that makes sense. basically, you are stringing all the speakers together in one line (current path). On elong circle, with teh speakers inline. That will give you a load of 12 ohms, which that amp is totally safe with. it may (or may not) be a little quieter setup like this, but there a good chance you'll be able to correct with gain adjustments (if the system is wel balanced to start). Good luck.

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/NyxBass

one easy way to get better sound (if you have the room) is add a fourth sub, and try to trade your amp for a 2 channel. if you bridge both channels to 2 subs, then you get twice the power (because they are running at 2 ohms) and you still can mess with the outputs. legacy amps work extremely well when in 2 ohm mode, i have that set up in my car.  the 12 ohm load will work, but it cuts down on the power output ALOT (basic ohms law). anywho, good luck

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Michael Jordan