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help with my new sub

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Old May 20, 2003
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help with my new sub

i got a JL 10w3v2 D6...

my amp is a kicker 800.4. how can i wire the sub so it can use 400 watts bridged at 4 ohms? i think the guy at the audio store wired it so it uses 3 ohm? he said it should be ok since my amp is stable at 2 and 4 ohm..

anyway i can wire it to 4 ohms? or is it okay the way its wired? i just dont know.. cuz after putting it in, its ok.. but seems to not be as good as i thought it would be (distortion at some frequences of bass, turned down to medium and u can barely hear any bass from the sub) , so maybe its just my amp tuning or the sub wiring that isnt right.

also is there any song i can dl thats good to use while tuning my amp? i want like continuous low bass

thankz

Headunit Pioneer DEH 6400

amp specs quoted from instruction book

RMS power all channels driven

@13.8V 4ohms stereo 0.085% THD 100 X 4
@13.8V 2ohms stereo 0.2% THD 200 X 4
@13.8V 4ohms mono 0.4% THD 400 X 2

Dynamic power all channels driven

@14.4V 4ohms stereo 175 X 4
@14.4V 2ohms stereo 215 X 4
@14.4V 4ohms mono 430 X 2

Last edited by AzNmiKex215; May 20, 2003 at 09:34 PM.
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Old May 20, 2003
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wire the coils in parallel for a 3 ohm loand and bridge the amp. what amp is it that you have?
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Old May 20, 2003
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i have a kicker 800.4 amp.

so running the subs at 3 ohm is okay ? when my amp says 400 X 2 at 4 ohms?
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Old May 20, 2003
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ya..it will be fine but youll only get 133 watts per sub cause you can only use either the front or the rear channels. whats the rms power handling on the subs?
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Old May 20, 2003
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huh? heres the link to the sub
http://www.jlaudio.com/subwoofers/10w3v2.html

300 RMS

i only have 1 JL10W3v2 D6

i bridged two of the 4 channels of my amp to power that one sub.
the amp is basically two amps. it has input for "amp1 and amp2. both have hi/lo pass switches. ithe outputs for "amp1" is R+ R- and L+ L- same for "amp2".

the sub is wired in parralle running at 3 ohms
i hook the sub up to "amp1" like so" positive goes to R+ and the negative goes to L-

having it wired this way doesnt give the amp enuff power? hence not being able to hear any bass at lower volumes?
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Old May 21, 2003
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here is my thread at sounddomain.com

http://forum.sounddomain.com/forum/u...=051252#000002

Last edited by AzNmiKex215; May 21, 2003 at 03:34 PM.
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Old May 21, 2003
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Originally posted by Alex053
ya..it will be fine but youll only get 133 watts per sub cause you can only use either the front or the rear channels. whats the rms power handling on the subs?
im not understanding that
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Old May 22, 2003
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anyone? i just want to know if its okay for me to run my sub this way. how much wattage is my sub getting? and if its not recommened for prolong use in this setup becuase of potential damage to either sub or amp, i will just bring it back and have the guy order me the 2 ohm version.

but just using newbie audio logic i would think since my amp can do 2 ohm in some setting and 4 ohm. 3 ohm should be okay?
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Old May 22, 2003
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you have your voice coils in parallel, creating a 3 ohm load. Ideally, for the most power, you want a D2 in series, to be 4 ohm. In 2 ohms, your amp makes 400 x 2, in 4 ohms, it makes 2 ohms.

the amp would not be stable at less than 4 ohms mono i assume. so right now, you're only bet would be to connect it to one channel, for somewhere between 100 and 200 watts at 3 ohms.
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Old May 22, 2003
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it should not cause any problems, as long as you don't try to turn the volume up and it starts clipping. keep the volume down and you'll be fine.

If you can exchange it, I would get a D2 with both coils in series for a 4 ohm load. Bridging the rear channels, you can give it 400 watts.
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Old May 22, 2003
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First some theory. The more of this you understand the better.

Ohms is known as resistance. Think of it as a measurement of how hard it is to push a speaker. A resistance of 0 ohms is a dead short. The less resistance you have for the speaker the easier it is for a given amplifier to move the speaker. The catch is when you lower the resistance too far, the amp puts out far more current and power. This is why using a speaker with a lower ohm rating than specified is bad. You can cook the speaker and the amp since they aren't in the proper range and they will use too much current. I recommend going to the JL website. They have good tutorials on wiring subs.

Now you have a dual voice coil sub and both coils are 6 ohms each. So if you take your 4 channel amp and bridge each end so you get a 2 channel amp. Now you put a coil on each amplifier channel.

It is rated for 400x2 @ 4 ohms. You will have 6 ohms per channel. Now from the theory you know going lower than 4 ohms is bad, but if its higher it just reduces power. So in reality your amp is putting about 300x2 @ 6 ohms.

If you went and swapped for the 2 ohm version your amp would blow. Your amp would try to output 600x2 @ 2 ohms. Too low of a resistance, current spikes up, amp melts down. Bad idea.

If you wanna swap, go get the 4 ohm version. Then each coil will be 4 ohms. It will be a perfect match to the capabilities of the amp. You will get a solid 400x2 @ 4 ohms.

Now the whole problem I see is the power rating. Even with the dual 6 ohm version you have an amp feeding this speaker 600 rms (300 per coil) and 1200 watts max. This appears to already be double of what is recommended for this speaker. The JL website says 300 rms, so thats 150 rms per coil. To keep from blowing this speaker your gain should be turned down very very far in that configuration.

Now the other idea is to only use half of the amp.

If you use half the amp without bridging and hook it up direct you will get each coil about 75x2 @ 6 ohms.

If you did brige one half of the amp and wire the speaker in parallel that would be questionable. Wiring in parallel would make the speaker look like a single 3 ohm speaker to the amp. Hence you would have approx 475x1 @ 3 ohms. That might be too little resistance, or it might not bother the amp since its so close. But still in this mode you have too much power for that speaker.

Personally I would go get the 2 ohm version and stick it on half the amp without any bridging. This way you get 400 rms (200x2 @ 2 ohms). The speaker is rated for 300rms. That would be a better combo. Plus you can then add a second identical sub later if you wanted to the other half of the amplifier.
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Old May 22, 2003
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Either way is the same result w/ the 2 ohm version.

Use half the amp for the speaker.

Get 400 watts via unbridged (200x2 @ 2 ohms).

Or you wire the subs coils in series so it acts like a 4 ohm speaker and bridge the amp. Then you have 400x1 @ 4 ohms.

Same difference. Its your preference.
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Old May 22, 2003
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thankz for ur answeres but im still not fully understanding.
maybe this diamgram of how my setup is wired will help u guyz explain to me better?
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Old May 22, 2003
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another quick question. with my sub wired above at 3 ohms. the gains on my amp have to be set pretty low so it wont distort wen the volume is turned up. (its like 1/3 the way now).

would switching to a 2 ohm DVC and wiring it up to the recommended 4 ohm config make it sound better becuase the gain would be able to be turned up higher?
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Old May 22, 2003
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honestly with the quality of the kicker amp and with the impedance rise of the box i think you will be fine at 3 ohm. JL's are known to have a wicked impedance curve and you may never see 3 ohm. Hook it up like your drawing and call it a day. If it thermals then hit us back up and we will make some changes.
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