Well I just read through about 8 pages of the "Can you use just one coil debate" and I am not closer to my answer so I figured I would ask and see what I can get.
Here is my delima. I have 2 PPI Art series A404.2's. They are in perfect condition and I am planning on using them in my upcomming build. I am going to use one of them running 4 ch. to run my highs, I was going to use the other to run my sub.
The problem comes in that it is a 4ch. amp, I can bridge it into 2ch. but that is the end. I only want to run 1 sub probably an RE 10. I am trying to keep it as light and compact as possible as this is going into my Mach 1 that I have setup for drag racing. It has been hard finding specs for the amp seeing as it is pretty old but from what I can gather the amp is only stable at 4 ohms when bridged, I have heard people running them 3ohms and not having problems.
Now I was thinking I could bridge the amp to 2ch and run a DVC 10. I could run one 4ohm coils off of one channel and run the other 4ohm coil off the other channel. This would allow me to use the amp to its fullest and use the speaker I want. After reading through everything I can find here it seems that running coils off of seperate channels should not be a problem. After talking to a local shop that does a decent amount of high end installs, their take is that you can do it but you need to make sure the gain on both channels are set almost exact of each other.
So what would you guys suggest for my situation.
Yes, as long as the amp can handle the load you can do that. Make sure you run the same subwoofer signal to all required amplifier inputs.
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Support the12volt.comSo my best bet would be to get a DVC with 2, 4ohm coils, run the amp 2 channel bridged and run one channel to one coil and the other channel to the other coil. By inputs I take it you mean do not hook the RCA's up like a standard L & R rather hook them up so that both sides are either being fed by the left or right signal from the head unit.
What is your opinion on setting the gain? Will I need to use a meter to make sure they are both within .0XX% of each other?
If I do need to meter them how do you go about doing that. I can handle using a DMM, just not sure of the steps on this application.
Depending on the type of subwoofer output from your HU (mono or stereo) and the input required by your amp (does it need both channels driven when you bridge them or does it default to one or the other?) you may need to use Y-cables or some other type of splitter to drive the amp. The key is to make sure both sides are in phase. As far as gain is concerned, just set both sides of the amp like you normally would. There is no need to try and precisely match power levels.
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Support the12volt.comNot sure how the head unit puts out the sub signal, its an Alpine CDA 9851 which has a dedicated sub output. The amp has front and rear RCA inputs, however there is a switch to combine the front/rear to feed off of one RCA input.
Thanks for the help, let me throw this one at you is there a way to tell how many watts the amp is putting out with a DMM or something like that?
Also I have a rear seat delete in the car, I am toying with either going in the spare tire well with one 10 and the amps for a stealth look, after looking at the space under the delete (probably 1.5 cuft on each side) I am considering putting the 10 on one side of the delete and the amps on the other side. What would the sound difference be between trunk mount and in the car mount? I am going for more sq than spl.