multiple Sub question

what is the difference between

one 4ohm sub on one 100watt amp?

two 2ohm subs (wired in series - showing a 4ohm load to the amp) on a 100 watt amp?

what do the dual subs see different than the single sub?

I'm sure they see different power - but how?

 

Half as much power each. Same amp output, twice as many speakers. They have to share.

 

Yup, same to the amp. ohms is the resistance it pushes - 100w at 4 ohm is 100w. But, you have double the cone surface area, so could potentially push more pressure.

 

i was thinking the same.

2 things are "moving" across the speaker wires...amps & volts. I doubt the volts are affected, it must be the amps.

but if a speaker is wired in series, and say 1 amp @ 60hz of sound is put thru it....are we guessing each speaker sees half the amps(current)?


and yes, to double the cone area - that's my main quandary!

in my gym garage - I have all my old subs wired to a Klipsch 500w home sub amp. 4 subs* in total...each time I add another sub it sounds louder and better. yes, I keep the ohm load to ~6ohms in total. I just got a pair of Dayton MX12-22's. I'm going to add them in & I bet it sounds better and louder on the same ~500watts.

is this because the effect of additional cone area outruns the effect of lower amperage to each driver?


* 2 old Orion Extreme 12's - early 90's ported.
2 JL Audio W3 15's - late 90's sealed

 

I'm not a pro on this stuff, but I do believe in a series, the speakers are splitting the watts. I'm not sure, but I would guess that more surface area at half the watts would generally be better by a bit - but everything is a trade off and it depends on the setup and maybe volumes you are running. The big thing is making sure you don't run an amp at less resistance (ohms) than it is designed for. If you are in the safe range by running parallel, it's pretty easy to wire it both ways and see what you like with what you have. I have a dual voice coil smaller 300W sub and an 800 watt 1 ohm stable amp, so I could wire both ways - but parallel was sending too much power and didn't sound better, so I went series and I'm comfortable the equipment is in pretty good shape. My gain and other amp levels are in the mid range or on the lower side. Of course, I didn't have the option of wiring for more surface area, but space kept me to one sub.