How to wire two subs on Mono Channel Amp?

Question

I have two Audiobahn ALUM12N subs powered by the Audiobahn A18001DT amp. How do i wire them two it for best performance? I do not know how to hook up a single channel amp to two subs. THANKS FOR HELP!

Also any tips on what gauge wire to use? THANKS AGAIN

Answer 1

The manufacturer says that your amp is 4, 2, and 1 ohm stable (higher values are OK, just less power). They also say that your subs are 6ohms. So if you hook them up in series [amp + to sub(1+) sub(1-) to sub(2+) sub(2 - )to amp -], you would have 12 ohm load, much, much less power.

if you hook them up in parallel [amp + to sub(1+) and sub(2+) amp - to sub(1-) and sub(2 -)] then you have a 3 ohm load, well with-in the manufacturers specs.

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woops wire go for awg #6, that would be ideal. #12, #10, or #8 would be ok too.

Answer 2

I assume you are installing these in a car, so you should be OK with 18AWG stranded wire. Not familiar with the make & model of amp you spec'ed but how you hook them up depends on the impedance of the amp & the speakers. You want to match the impedance as close as you can. For example: if your amps O/P is 8 ohms & each of your speakers are 8 ohms then you must connect the speakers in series for a total of 16 ohms load on the amp. If you hook them up in parallell you will have a speaker load of only 4 ohms & eventually your amps O/P stage will burn out. So remember, whatever the numbers are: Series will double the load, & parallell will 1/2 it. The ideal situation with two speakers on to an 8 ohm amp would be two 4 ohm speakers in series for a total load of 8 ohms on the amp.
Also make sure you connect them in phase (match the polarity of the speakers) if the speakers are out of phase they will work against each other & cut the efficiency in 1/2 of what you would get from a single speaker. If the speakers polarity aren't marked, there is a trick you can do with a 9v battery. Temporarily touch the battery poles directly to the speaker terminals 1st one way, then the other & observe which way pulls the speaker diaphram in, & mark the polarity on the S/P terminals. Do this for both speakers, because some manufacturers don't pay attention to the polarity on the terminals, & some sets of speakers can have reverse polarity. Hope that helps.