Getting to the end of all my projects, yesterday I installed my new sub box and went to wire it to the amp. <BR> <BR>The sub is an 10" Alpine Type-R (SWR-1042D) which is a dual 4ohm voice coil sub. The recommended power (RMS) to the sub is 500W with a peak of 1500W <BR> <BR>The amp I'm pushing it with is a Cadence Z4000 amp which is capable of providing 2 x 300w at 4 Ohm Bridged Power. <BR> <BR>The way that I have the sub wired is I've run one set of voice coils in parallel (+ to + and - to -) inside the box and have a single +/- coming out of the box to the amp. <BR> <BR>My question is what would be the way I want to wire this? <BR> <BR>1. Do I run the amp in 4ch mode and bridge channels 1&amp;4 (+ to ch1 and - to ch4)? <BR>2. Do I run the amp in 4ch mode and bridge channels 1&amp;2 (+ to ch1 and - t0 ch2)? <BR>3. Do I run the amp in 2ch mode and bridge channels 1&amp;2? <BR> <BR>HELP!!! <BR>

If you bridge the chanels and run the sub in parallel you'll be showing the amp a 2ohm load bridged which will probably cause the amp to shut down in protection mode. Scenario 1 &amp; 4 are the same. All scenarios will show the amp a 2ohm load, if you have the sub wired the way it is. or could wire the sub in series but it would be pointless. That is probably not the best amp to push one sub. My advcie by another sub and hook them both up<img src="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/clipart/happy.gif" border=0>

OK, you need to make sure the amp is stable at 2 ohms when it is bridged (essentially a 1 ohm stable amp) <BR>Bridge 1&amp;2, use 3&amp;4 for some more speakers. <BR> <BR>Do not bridge all four channels into this sub, it will cook the amp (unless it is a competition amp). <BR> <BR>Something else to consider, but I would not do it as you will lose some of the tightness, run 2 leads out of your box, one connected to each voice coil, connect one to channels 1&amp;2, and the other to channesl 3&amp;4.

Matt - I've had this sub installed running with the same amp last summer and that's the way it was configured - 2 sets of leads from the box running to channels 1/2 &amp; 3/4 and it ran fine all summer. <BR> <BR>I was told by an installer at Car Toys (probably not the best resource) that I could run the single lead out of the box (running the sub in parallel) and it would be fine. <BR> <BR>Here's the link to the amp: <BR><a href="http://www.cadencestore.com/ProductCart/pc/caraudio_detail.asp?idcategory=19&amp;idproduct=32 " target="_blank">http://www.cadencestore.com/ProductCart/pc/caraudio_detail.asp?idcategory=19&amp;idproduct=32 </a> <BR> <BR>So what it looks like is that I need an amp that's stable at 2ohms?

Just found this in the installation manual: <BR> <BR>Standard Ultra Drive Z series amplifier are designed to deliver their full rated power into 4-ohm speaker loads continuously, without current <BR>limiting. The speaker impedance's recommended for these amplifiers range from 2 - 4 Ohms in the stereo mode and 4 ohms in the bridged mode. A 2-ohm speaker load is the maximum per channel in the stereo mode while 4 ohm is the maximum on the bridged channel. <BR>High Current models such as the Z1000 &amp; Z5000 are mono blocks which operate down to a 2 ohm mono load while the Z1200, Z7000 &amp; Z777 will operate down to a 1 ohm mono load. The Z4300&amp; Z1500 are High Current stereo amps which operate at 1 ohm strereo and 2 ohm mono bridged. <BR>When using 4-ohm speakers you may install either one per channel or 2 speakers in parallel per channel, thus bringing the final impedance load per channel to 2 ohms. The use of dual voice coil 4 ohm drivers wired in parallel to 2 ohms per <BR>woofer and wired to each stereo channel will allow you to have maximum output in a 2 speaker system. (Stereo Mode Only!)

Zack, <BR> <BR>Running a single DVC sub was proabbly not your best option. Amps that will run 2ohm bridged are gonna cost you....and they pull alot of curent. You could try what matt said, but I would not recomend it. I've only run DVC's in pairs.

I don't recommend it either, but it is a solution. Best answer, new amp, or more speakers. That amp can handle quite a few speakers on it, I would go for it and have a really good system. <BR> <BR>A pair of DVC subs with some creative wiring to make them 4 ohms to the amp, and two pair of speakers on channels 1&amp;2 with 3&amp;4 bridged into both subs. Max out the amp (safely), but you may need some additional beef on the power supply to make it sound good (cap, additional battery).

Well it looks like I'll be getting a new amp. Pretty much narrowed it down to the JL 500/1 and the PPI PCX500.1 as the 2 choices. Any thoughts on which is better (note: I have a PPI 4125 in my boat already). <BR> <BR>Question - why is running a single DVC sub not a good option?

If its a 4ohm DVC you'll either have to wire it to 2ohm or 8 ohm. You will never see the full power out of most amps (that can't go down to 2ohm bridged/mono) IMO the best way to run DVC subs is in 2ohm....each to ther own channel (2 channel amp). <BR> <BR>Both amps are good choices, you can't go wrong assuming each are 2ohm stable. (I believe they are)

For the same reason that you are having a problem, it's hard to get an amp to power them bridged at a low impedance.

After readint he psot my explanantion is a little unclear. for example. you have a 2ch amp that is 100x2 into 4ohms. it would more than likely be 200x2 into 2ohms and 50x2 into 8ohms. and possibly 250x1 bridged into 4ohms. wiring the sub in 2ohm you would see 200watts to it w/ one channel left open (assuming the amp is not 2ohm stable bridged) Run in 8 ohm you could bridge the amp and see 125 watts (250/2 b/c its 8ohm you'll need to divide the wattage by 2) All in theroy.

Zack, <BR> <BR>According to the manual from the link you posted you should run your sub in stereo mode only with one voice coil on left and the other voice coil on right, see the bottom of page 8, "4 ohm is the maximum on the bridged channel". If I were in your shoes I would run another pair of speaker wires and hook it up in stereo, actually I just did that with my 12" alpine sub. It was a pain because the box only had terminals for a single connection so I had to drill a hole and just run the wires out of the box. <BR> <BR>If you do a little reading on <a href="http://www.bcae1.com" target="_blank">www.bcae1.com</a> you will see that a 2 ohm load in mono is the same as a 1 ohm load in stereo.