Hi I'm new here. I am having a little trouble so I'll start from the beginning. I own an MB Quart 2400 Amplifier (2x200@4ohms, 2x400@2ohms, 1x800@4ohms) and an MB Quart PWE 352 15" 2-ohm DVC Subwoofer. I just realized today that I am indeed an idiot. I thought I had the amp wired in standard configuration (400 watts to each voice coil.) I had an epiphany last night and realized that for a year and a half I have had the amplifier bridged at 2 ohms, which the amp is not designed to do. So I changed the wiring around and sure enough, I was right. The sub is still in perfect condition, but I've noticed that the right channel on the amp (the only channel that's been doing any work the past year and a half) clips at a much lower level than the left channel. I'm not an expert on clipping (or wiring obviously) so I was wondering if this could be a side affect of screwing up my wiring. So I removed my sub from my car and decided that I would build a new box because the old one wasn't really designed for my new car (a 94 mustang cobra.) So I checked around and found a program called WinISD. I found a guide on this site that tells a lot of good info, but I have one problem. Where can I get some of the specs for my sub, such as Le, Hc, Hg, Xmax, etc?
Since this sub is designed solely for use in a sealed box, some parameters are not necessary for you to find or test for. Just a workup with Fs, Qts and Vas will provide enough to build a box. You may not be able to find info on Xmax, and if not you won't know how large you can build the box airspace and still provide damage control to this driver. A better response curve is found with a 3+ cu ft box but according to Crutchfield information the recommended size is 1.5 cu ft net. This puts a bit of a peak in the response but not out of the ordinary for car audio, and is likely intended to provide stiffer damping to protect from overexcursion. When building the box, allow about 0.12 cu ft for driver displacement.
Connect the two voice coils in series and you will have a 4 ohm sub. To do that, run a jumper wire from coil 1 neg to coil two pos. This 4 ohm load can be bridged to your two channel amp and output will be along the lines of the spec'd 1X800watts. If you have a faulty amp channel you will need to have it looked at. But go through complete gain setting procedures first with the correct hookup.
(BTW, with one DVC2 ohm sub it is not possible to have bridged the amp with a 2 ohm load...unless you used only one coil - one set of terminals - on the sub. If you had the sub connected to only one channel, it wasn't bridged.)
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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.
Using only one coil on the sub is exactly what I did accidently. I set the amp up as if it were bridged, and I hooked the speaker up as if it were in standard setting. I somehow never even noticed that the left gain on the amp had no impact because I always set the right gain first.
When you say I may need to have my amp looked at, who could I take it to? Are there repair shops that can fix that type of thing?
Ok I am now past the level of an idiot. I looked at the wiring again, and I didn't have it bridged after all. I just wasn't running the left input into the amp.