wiring subs

[sniperi311]

i was wondering how you run two subs in series, parallel, or if theres any other way running them bridged if you know what i mean or however many ways there is besides series and parallel, thanx

[mdelorie]

Well, if you have two subs, and you want to run them in series, then you'd wire them: Positive on amp to positive on sub1, negative on sub1 to positive on sub2, negative on sub2 to negative on amp.

 

This will yield you a doubled load. (ie. 4ohm + 4ohm = 8ohm)

 

If you want to run them in parallel: Positive on amp to positive on sub1 to positive on sub2. Negative on amp to negative on sub1 to negative on sub2.

 

This will yield a load in parallel. The formula for determining this is:

(1/R1) + (1/R2) = (1/Rt)

Where R1 and R2 are your loads (4 ohm, likely) and Rt is your total (in this case, with 4 ohm loads in parallel, it comes out to 2 ohms)

 

If you have lots of subs, and are running them all off of one amplifier (dumb idea) then you can start getting tricky with series / parallel combinations. I knew a guy that was running four subs off one 1channel amp. pairs in series, then had the pairs in parallel with each other. He was running a 4 ohm load, but didn't have nearly enough power to drive them all with his piddly little amp.

 

Bridging is accomplished with a two channel amplifier which can be run as one channel. Basically, take the positive of one channel, and the negative of the other. If I recal correctly, specific negatives and positives have to be used (anyone verify this?) For example, the amplifier will work in bridged mode if you use negative1 and positive2, but not if you use negative2 and positive1.

 

Hope that helps. Let me know if I explained anything poorly, and maybe I'll draw a picture or something.

[92Cutlass4Dr]

This should help you out:

 

http://www.jlaudio.com/tutorials/wiring/index.html

 

Good luck