i am running two 8 ohm dvc's and a mono amp. i have it wired up in series (negative on one voice coil to negative on other voice coil, etc). my subs keep shutting off when i hit them fairly good. the amp light never turns off though. the subs just stop. the amp is still cold too. all i have to do is shut the deck off and turn it back on and they are on again. can anyone help me out? thanks cal

 

Let me get this straight...
You are running 2 8ohm dvc's in series on a mono amp?
Negative on one voice coil to the negative on the other voice coil would be parallel. Negative to one voice coil to positive on the other voice coil would be series.
Are each voice coil 4ohm or 8ohm? With a 4 ohm voice coil would bring the ohm load per woofer in series to 8ohm. Or parallel would be 2ohm. And with an 8ohm voice coil would bring the woofer to 16ohm in series, or 4ohm in parallel.
What kind of amp are you running?
It sounds like you have ran each woofer as a 4ohm sub and paralled it to the amp creating a 2ohm mono load on the amp.

Just assuming that the voice coils are 4ohm each on one woofer....and you have them wired in parallel (which is they way you are describing) you get each woofer to be a 2ohm sub wiring in parallel to the amp making a 1ohm connection. Make sure your amp is stable at 1ohm. If not, that is your problem.

 

i am not sure on the subs. on the back of the subs it says 8 ohms. i am not sure if that means 4 ohms per voice coil?? crap, thanks for pointing that out. i am running this in parallel. i am running the Alpine MRP-M350 amp.

for running in series, i think i need to do this:

run the + from the amp to the + to sub 1. run the - from the amp to the - on sub 2. then run the - on sub 1 to the + on sub 2.

however, how do i hook this up using the dual voice coils?

i really appreciate your help. thanks cal

 

This is how you would wire 2 single voice coil subwoofers together in series. If your subs have dual voice coils you will need to use a series/parallel connection of some type. It would really help to know if you have dual 4ohm or dual 8ohm voice coil subwoofers.

 

RMS Power (at 14.4V,20Hz-20kHz)

Per channel into 2 ohms : 350W x 1 (0.3%)
Per channel into 4 ohms : 200W x 1 (0.08%)

Here is the power rating on it from the alpine site.
http://www.alpine-usa.com/

It looks like the amp is only 2ohm stable in mono. You will probably need to wire your subs differently.

To do series you will need to do this:
+from amp to + on sub, - from same sub to + of next sub, - of that sub to amp

To do parallel you will need to do this:
+ from amp to + on sub, - on same sub to - on amp. Doing the same for the second sub.

Look here for better explaination
http://www.jlaudio.com/tutorials/wir...ex.html#2dvcsp

 

according to that diagram, i am currently running it in series/parallel. i was running it in parallel/parallel until you responded earlier. it seems to be fine now but i haven't used them much since i made the change. i am near positive the subs are 4ohm + 4 ohm.

 

you shouldn't have a problem now. It looks like you are running a 4ohm load if you followed the diagram.

 

they have actually shut off twice using that diagram. i am not sure. i am hitting them pretty hard but not like maxxing them out when it happens.

also, i have another quick question. when hooking up the voice coils according to that picture, you are running a wire from the amp to a positive voice coil and then running a wire to the negative voice coil but you go to a voice coil on the opposite sides of the sub. are you following me? in other words, can i just run a + from the amp to a + on the sub and then a - on the amp to the - right next to the + of the same voice coil? or do i need to switch like the diagram shows? it would just be easier the other way. thanks again, cal.

 

No, then the amp will only see that one voice coil of that DVC sub.

 

Also try checking your gain on your amp. You might have it turned up to much.
This is a good walk through if you have a cd and a voltmeter:
http://www.jlaudio.com/tutorials/index.html#

You want the "Gain" setting one.