Never thought to check a video or picture. Mine has two wires from the amp circuit board that connect to my single voice coil sub but it's been awhile since I actually installed it. I've replaced the speaker twice and the first time I was actually concerned about how I was going to do it until I saw how the amp was wired. I don't have any good pictures of the board to post but I don't remember it being difficult to see that you weren't connecting half the amp.
Aftermarket subwoofer replacement for factory subwoofer?
- Thread starter JGil
- Start date
A DVC sub can take two amplified channels, and a DVC is designed as such so you can easily wire it to a wide array of amps, watts/channels/impedence.
As an example, take the common center console replacement sub, the Kicker 6.75" with 2 Ohm DVC, 150 watts and 300 watts peak.
You could have 1 or 2 channels from an amplifier power the Kicker. The Kicker could be wired from an amplifier that has at least:
1) 1 channel with 1 Ohm, 300 watts peak, 150 RMS. Parallel.
2) 1 channel with 4 Ohm, 300 watts peak, 150 RMS. Series.
3) 2 channels, each with 2 Ohm, 150 watts peak and 75 watts RMS. Direct to each VC.
I have a 6 channel amplifier with two channels going to the DVC sub, as long as you use the correct power, multiple amp channels will drive a DVC sub.
"Most" speaker and amp manufacturers don't recommend this configuration, it generates unnecessary heat in the voice coil due to small differences in the amp output stages. At high powers the loss can be large. You can't perfectly balance them and any differences in current flow generates heat and doesn't contribute to movement. This isn't a problem when they are wired in series or parallel on the same channel or a bridged channel. At the end of the day It's your system so wire it however you want.
I have never ever seen or read any quality brand, audio shop or audiophile recommend against it.
I actually have a quad coil sub woofer that I use four amplified channels on, comes recommended to do that.
Good to know, you have more experience with this stuff than I do that's for sure.
I want to say the audio shop that set up Chris audio wired his Kicker to two channels. It's really the same power when calculated apples to apples.
I'd agree with this because I've never seen a wiring diagram with 2 channels, 1 for each voice coil. The most common configuration with 2 channels is 2 channels bridged, then wired to the sub with the voicecoils in series or parallel. There may be exceptions to this but I am not familiar with them.
So because you have never seen it means the most common method is what you have seen? Here is a picture so you can can visualize.
As a reminder, never assume your amplifier is bridgeable – always check!
Another source as well, not coming from a random forum member.
We’ll be clear: A single voice coil subwoofer isn’t “better” than a dual voice coil sub, or vice versa. The only benefit of a DVC sub is that the coils can be wired in series, in parallel, or each can be fed directly to an amplifier channel. There are benefits in terms of installation flexibility, but the number of connections to the voice coil doesn’t improve the driver’s performance or sound quality.
https://www.bestcaraudio.com/subwoofers-and-amplifiers-lets-talk-about-ohms-and-loads/
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Rockford, kicker, JL, alpine, and stereo integrity are the sub brands I’m most familiar with. I’ve never seen them recommend multiple channels for multiple voicecoils but I’m open to being proven wrong. I’m certainly not familiar with *all* brands or bestcaraudio.com or soundcertified.com. It’s not a wiring configuration I’ve seen recommended.
I’m not interested in getting into an argument. I’m just saying it’s not something I’ve seen before. I’m curious which amp and/or sub manufacturers recommend that configuration.
The reason wiring each voice coil independently is not as commonly seen as Series/Parallel wiring is generally a subwoofer or multiple subwoofers, when used in car audio, is/are powered by a mono-amp. A mono-amp has only one channel so Series or Parallel wiring must be used, and a DVC sub gives you a wider range of amplifiers to choose from.
This is from JL audio, while they don't have a fancy picture it is written in their literature:
How are dual voice coil speakers rated for power handling?
A dual voice coil speaker’s power handling is typically specified by manufacturers for the whole speaker. This means that a 250 Watt dual voice coil driver is designed to handle a total of 250 Watts, regardless of whether the coils are wired independently, in series or in parallelhttps://jlaudio.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/204374150-Speaker-Wiring-Tutorial