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I walked into a car audio shop the other day and was looking at subs..... The guy in there told me that if I'm going to buy a sub, I should buy one with dual voice coils. First off, what does the voice coil do and why do I need two?

 
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"When a current is passed through the coil of wire, called the voice coil, it generates a magnetic field. This electromagnet interacts with the field in the magnetic gap and the voice coil moves. The direction of movement depends on the direction of current flow through the VC. Since audio is an AC waveform, current flows in one direction and then changes polarity, the VC moves either forward or backward from its point of rest. The diagram below shows how the VC is connected to the cone of the speaker. The cone is the part of the speaker that actually makes the sound by alternately creating an area of high and then low air pressure."

I dont feel like posting the diagram, but in a simple summary, the voice coil is what moves the cone. You dont NEED a dual voice coil sub for any reason other than the fact that it provides more wiring options; some of the best woofers out there (the JL 10W7 and 12W7 for example) are single voice coil subs.

 
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That green galloping weird thing in your sig is just DISTURBING!
Please change it before I have nightmares.

 
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the voice coil is kind of like the pistons in a motor. It gets pushed around that that in turn moves the cone up and down. Dual voice coil subs generally have a little higher power handling but also leaves many more wiring options open.

 
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completely and utterly wrong with the higher power handling

power handling and sound isnt changed a single bit when using dvc's versus svc's..

the only speaker i can think of that had massive sound differences between the svc and dvc is the older series eclipse aluminums... the svc has a lower resonant frequency

 
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hehehehehe, I love that thing...I have no clue what it is, but it's just awesome.

 
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first i didn't say all subs, I said generally dvc subs handle more. And there are plenty of dvc subs that handle more power than their svc comterpart. Not saying that there aren't plenty of subs that this doesn't apply to. But take the rockfor HE to the HE2, same sub just the HE2 has DVC and twice the rated power handling. JL 12w7 to 13w7 250 watts difference, and like you said eclipse subs. I'd hardly say that my statement is "completely and utterly wrong."