Nastyc4

iTrader: (13)

Ok I wired everything up yesterday. all the hookups are clean and I took my time to do everything 'right'. Used the right rear woofer as input to the line converter etc. I have a few other posts up her on whats been going on but I went to the stereo shoppe and he plugged in a different sub and it worked good.

I have a Dual voice coil JBL sub. It says 4 ohm DVC on the box. the manuals say 8 or 2 impedance.

My kicker amp is 200 rmsx2 @ 4 ohm or 400 rms x 1 @ 2 ohm


When I plug a single coil into the amp. it runs. I tried the other coil and it works. when I bridge the amp and connect both voice coils my amp Clips right away. I'm talking gain set at 5%, just barely on. No volume at all just barely audible.

Is the sub toast and unable to play @ 2 ohms or is it the Amp?

Nastyc4

iTrader: (13)

From what I read online the speaker is still seeing 4 ohms when bridged but the amp goes to 2. sounds like my amp is messed up ??

99Bluz28

iTrader: (35)

Yeah, sounds like the Amp's messed up.

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

I not sure I understand what you've read online... Speakers don't "see" impedance. Speakers produce impedance and the amp "sees" it (before anyone jumps on me, I know that is over-simplified). Similarly, amps don't "go to" an impedance - the impedance is the load that the amp sends its signal into - there is no switching involved.

I was unable to find specs on a bridgeable ZX400 Kicker amp (assuming this is the same amp you mentioned in other threads). The only ZX400 I could find is mono (ZX400.1). But in general, assuming you have a 400 watt 2-channel amp, you can't run it bridged into a 2-ohm load. It is designed to produce 200 watts each into two 2-ohm channels or 400 watts into one bridged 4-ohm channel. Wiring your sub in parallel (2-ohm load) and connecting it to your amp when it's bridged will put the amp in protection mode and stop all output. You can't wire your DVC 4-ohm sub in any combination that will make the most use of that amp's output. The best you can get is half the power by either wiring the sub in series (8-ohm) to the amp when bridged or by connecting the two amp channels to the separate 4-ohm voice coils.

From your description, I don't think either the amp or the sub is faulty - they're just mismatched.

Nastyc4

iTrader: (13)

Thanks do much for that reply. I do apologize if i did get any terms mixed up.

The amp is indeed a kicker zx400.1 mono d from 2006/7 ibelieve. Id I may, how di I get maximum power from this amp? I sm going to purchase a sub today and want to make sure I get the Right one spec wise wether it's coils or ohms.

tuffluck

iTrader: (4)

400w x 4ohms. pretty simple. you need a sub with a single voice coil.

TURBOEDDIE21

sounds like the sub needs to be wired in a different way. you cant just do one coil it will damage the sub. needs to be wired in parallel to get a 2 ohm load which is optimum for that amp. the amp cannot not be briged, it does it automatically internally.

Nastyc4

iTrader: (13)

Here is the exact amp I have

(non-sponsor link removed) http://www.kicker.com/zx_amplifiers

I believe I have been messing up my terminology. I had it wired to both coils originally and it clips. It runs great just plugged into 1 coil right now I believe the jbl sub is rated 175 rms per coil and if I'm running just 4 ohms I believe it's 200 rms.

I want to order the alpine type r 10"

I'm pretty sure it says the amp is 200 watts rms @ 4 ohms.


Also I am only running one voice coil because this sub is just temporary and whe ohm tested one coil showed bad. I have it plugged to the one coil that showed 4 ohms.

What I am afraid of is hooking up a new sub and frying it !

tuffluck

iTrader: (4)

the 400.1 MONO amp will do 400x1 @ 2ohms. if you are wiring one voice coil to the 2nd voice coil, then running a separate speaker wire set from that voice coil to the amp, that's 2 ohms. if there are problems, then it's got to be a bad amp or speaker. you can look up speaker diagrams if you want to know if you're doing the wiring part right. still sounds to me like i said in your other 2 threads about the same problem that is sounds like something isn't working properly.

WhiteBird00

iTrader: (4)

Kicker has diagrams on their site showing how to wire dual voice coil subs to achieve the impedance you want: http://www.kicker.com/dvc_wiring. The second diagram shows how to wire a single DVC sub to create a 2-ohm load for the amp.

Nastyc4

iTrader: (13)

I have it wired correctly as per that link a well. When i originally hooked everything up it was like that. I smelled something burning and that's what's killin me . I don't know if th one coil was already bad or if I fried it somehow. Volume was never even cranked nor the gain above the 1/5 th mark and it was still clipping.

I guess the only way to find out is to hook up my new sub when it gets here. I ordered it earlier. Either my new sub will fry too or there was one bad coil on the used jbl I tried. I didn't want to hook up a new sub to test it out thas why I was asking if it was common that a mono amp could possibly work fine @ 4 ohms but clip at 2. If it was possible and something common on damaged amps then it could be the amp. But the amp seems to crank real well on 1 coil @ 4 ohms. Surprisingly well, even at 1/4 gain and no bass boost

99Bluz28

iTrader: (35)

Okay, so now it sounds like it was just the sub, not the Amp. I would think if it was the Amp it would of fried both voice coils, not just one.

Nastyc4

iTrader: (13)

Hmm that makes sense didn't think of that. I feel better already !