jaymann107

Has anyone ever been told that if you have a DVC (Dual Voice Coil) speaker that you can run only one of the voice coils in order to keep the speaker at the ohm you need.
Example
I have a Power Punch 360.2 that will put out 360 watts bridged at a 4 ohm load. I went to buy a speaker today and the guy at the shop was trying to sell me a 10" Clarion DVC that had dual 4 ohm voice coils which run in series would put that speaker at a 2ohm load. I explained the above to the guy and he said that I can run the speaker with just one voice coil hooked up and that would put the speaker at the ohm I needed.
Help me out here guys...I dont know everthing there is to know about car audio but I do know that I have never heard of anyone running a DVC speaker with just one voice coil hooked up. All questions and comment are more than welcome. Thanks

Castles_Saloon

DVC.. huh, i don't any experience with those, but it would allow a selectable impedance and hence power load on the amp.

if the the dual voice coils are added in series, then the 4 ohm +4 ohm becomes 8 ohms (an easier load for an amp). if they are added in parallel, then the 4 ohm and 4ohm become 2 Ohms. This is a heftier load on the amp requiring more current out of the amp. the sub will output more volume in the parallel configuration. A dual voice coil probably distributes the heat better and allows more efficient play.

jaymann107

You're right...sorry about that. I just caught that I got confused with the wording. Wiring a speaker in Series doubles the ohms and Parallel divides the ohms in half. My mistake.
But still the question remains. Can you run a dual voice coil speaker with just one of the voice coils hooked up (without doing damage to the speaker)?

feuss2

iTrader: (1)

You can run just one coil. Just remember your power handling will be cut in half too. My recommendation would be to run the 2 coils in series (8 ohm load) and if the speaker is loud enough for you, then leave it that way. Most amps have lower THD numbers with higher impedence loads. You'll get both good sound quality and good heat dissipation as well...

jaymann107

Sounds like a good idea...I never thought about running the speaker at a higher ohm than recomended. Thanks for all the help guys. If all goes well I might give an update with pictures of my very simple audio system. Thansk again.

smazzurco

did you already buy the sub? running at 8 ohms = a loss of power more than likely. Why not get a dual 2ohm if possible? If you havent purchased a sub yet check www.ficaraudio.com

i love my Q i got from them. Lots of options and unbeatable quality for the price.

then again iv never really been a "name brand" speaker guy. I used JLs a long time ago when they werent very popular, then ran adire audios for a while (worked good, but had some service issues).

IMO dual 2 is the most ideal DVC sub to get. You can run it at 1 ohm if you have a beefy amp, or 4 ohm. basically it will match whatever else you have.

hth

AcuraX2

This is correct. If you run your amp at 8 ohms, your sub will get around 180 watts. I would try and do like smazzurco suggested and find a dual 2 ohm sub or a single 4 ohm sub. That will get the most out of your amp. Running one voice coil or running at 8 ohms is short changing your self.

jaymann107

I just wanted to give an update on how I decided to run my setup. From the very begining I was running the setup bridged into a 2ohm load which worked but the sound quality was really bad. I thought it might have been because the box is bigger than recommended or because my amp did not run stable bridged into a 2ohm load.
Rockford Fosgate Power Punch 360.2 (2002 Model)

Well this weekend I got tired of my system sounding like crap so I tried wiring my speaker in series to bring the speaker up to 8ohms and sure enough that made the biggest difference in the world. The sound quality is amazing and it is still loud enough for me to really appreciate it. I'm glad I tried this before I went out and spent my money on a different box. Thanks again for everyones help on this one.
Clarion SRW 1052 (2008 Model)