So I currently have a singe Punch Stage 3 dual 4-ohm voice coil Rockford Fosgate subwoofer hooked up to a Sony mono amp wired in series, for an amp load of 8-ohm. The amp, although single channel, has 4 terminals for speaker hookup (2 positive, and 2 negative,) which I think are intended for hooking up 2 separate subwoofers to the one amp. I am wondering if I can run 4 speaker wires (positive-positive x 2 + negative-negative x 2) from the amp, to both voice coils of my subwoofer. 1) Will this result in a 4-ohm load, and 2) Will this be safe for my sub since the signal is coming from the same channel?

 

What is the model number for the amp, without knowing which amp it is I can't say for sure. If it truly is a mono block with two sets of terminals, that is still a mono block and those terminals should be parallel. So if you did what you talking about you would end up with a 2ohm load, which any decent amp will be 2 ohm stable. Now a sony amp is far from decent, so it may only be 4 ohm stable.

 

The model of my amp is XM-D9001GTR. It's an older amp, and I've been having other troubles with it anyway, but as always I don't have the money to replace it right now lol.

 

Ok, after looking up the manual, I found that the amp is infact 2ohm stable, is a true D mono block, and those two terminals are wired in parallel. So this means you can run a lower impedance that what your urnning now, so it will be a bit louder now. So yes you can wire each coil separately to the two terminals on the amp, I would only do this if you have two separate terminal cups on your box. The best thing to do, would be to wire the coils in parallel within the box, and only run one set of wires out of the box, absolutely no need for two. Make sure you using nice gauge wiring, I used 10awg for my sub wiring.

 

Okay, I might put it back to a 2-ohm setup. I had the coils wired in parallel before, but went to series for better sound clarity (at least it sounded clearer, I don't know if the wiring actually changed anything.) I just was trying to find a way to get a 4-ohm load, but I guess I'll have to get a second dual voice coil sub to run 4-ohm. Thanks for the advice and clarification T00fat, I didn't realize that the amp was internally wired parallel to the two terminal sets.

 

Running 8 ohms will be gentler on your amp, but a 2 ohm load should not cause it to clip or distort. If it's distorting at 2ohms, turn your gain down. They really shouldn't be passed a 1/4 turn, and more than 1/2 is guaranteed clipping. If it is still distorting, its on the sub or enclosure side. Could be overpowering your sub, the cone is breaking down, or just a crappy sub causing the distortion. Aslo a sealed box that is way too small can cause distortion as well. Really tired and stoned so I may have missed something, but this should get you thinking.