Subwoofer wattage and wiring question
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Melting Slicks
Joined: May 2007
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From: Houston TX
Subwoofer wattage and wiring question
It has been a while since I have done car audio so I have forgot alot of the technical aspects of subwoofer installation.
I have a friend who wants to get two 13 inch W6V2 subwoofers. If I were to take an amp that is rated at 750 rms @ 2 ohms, do I do a series or parallel wiring setup on the subwoofer? How would I have to wire this up to take advantage of all 750 RMS watts on the subwoofer?
I have a friend who wants to get two 13 inch W6V2 subwoofers. If I were to take an amp that is rated at 750 rms @ 2 ohms, do I do a series or parallel wiring setup on the subwoofer? How would I have to wire this up to take advantage of all 750 RMS watts on the subwoofer?
Thread Starter
Melting Slicks
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 2,113
Likes: 0
From: Houston TX
alright it looks like my friend decided to go with 2 Jl 12 W6V2 subwoofers. The shop said that linking them together will cause the ohms to drop to 1 ohm. These subs are rated at 600 rms. What amp and wiring should be used here?
Melting Slicks
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 2,149
Likes: 6
From: NCCO Oklahoma
A JL 12 W6V2 is a dual voice coil sub. Each voice coil is 4 ohms.
You can wire them in multiple different configurations. Series, parallel, or a combination series/parallel.
Series is just in a row. 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 = 16 ohms.
Parallel is a bit different, as we need to take the reciprocal of the impedance, then combine and take the reciprocal again.
Impedance = 1 / (1/4 + 1/4 + 1/4 + 1/4)
Impedance = 1 / 1
Impedance = 1 ohm.
Your amp wont be able to handle that kind of load... so that won't work.
So let's look at what you can do with a series/parallel circuit:
Sub A coils in parallel: 1 / (1/4 + 1/4) = 1 / 0.5 = 2 ohms
Sub B coils in parallel: 1 / (1/4 + 1/4) = 1 / 0.5 = 2 ohms
Sub A in series with sub B: 2 + 2 = 4 ohms.
This is the best combination for that particular amp. If you used subs with different impedance values, or multiple amps, or an amp that is stable to one ohm, you would/could draw more power out of it.
Hope this helps.
Mark
You can wire them in multiple different configurations. Series, parallel, or a combination series/parallel.
Series is just in a row. 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 = 16 ohms.
Parallel is a bit different, as we need to take the reciprocal of the impedance, then combine and take the reciprocal again.
Impedance = 1 / (1/4 + 1/4 + 1/4 + 1/4)
Impedance = 1 / 1
Impedance = 1 ohm.
Your amp wont be able to handle that kind of load... so that won't work.
So let's look at what you can do with a series/parallel circuit:
Sub A coils in parallel: 1 / (1/4 + 1/4) = 1 / 0.5 = 2 ohms
Sub B coils in parallel: 1 / (1/4 + 1/4) = 1 / 0.5 = 2 ohms
Sub A in series with sub B: 2 + 2 = 4 ohms.
This is the best combination for that particular amp. If you used subs with different impedance values, or multiple amps, or an amp that is stable to one ohm, you would/could draw more power out of it.
Hope this helps.
Mark
Thread Starter
Melting Slicks
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 2,113
Likes: 0
From: Houston TX
