I have a kenwood 600 watt amp (KAC-729S) and 2 pioneer 600 watt subs, dual voice coil. When I had the subs wired at 2 ohms and wired them to the amp in stereo, they hit hard. But it seems the amp isn't stable down to 2 ohms because it keeps going into protection mode. Now i just have it wired to one voice coil at 4 ohms. Is there anything i can do for it to hit as hard as it did when it was 2 ohms without having to buy a new amp?

 

that amp should be stable down to 2 ohms. hows the area near the amp? does it have enough space around it to allow heat dissipation?

 

you cannot wire the subs that way, you will damage the speaker. both coils on the dvc sub should be powered at the same time. If the amp goes into safety/protection mode, consider turning the gains down a bit till the amp no longer shuts off, or buy another amplifier.

 

a guy in a stereo shop told me that when you wire an amp like that, its gonna need a lot of juice so its better to stay at 4 ohms. He said its more ideal. When I had it wired at 2 ohms and it kept shutting off, i did notice if i jiggled the fuse it would turn on again. But then I saw one of the ends of the fuse sparking and was starting to burn. The stereo guy said it was because i had it wired down to 2 ohms. What do you guys suggest? It hasn't shut off on me since I had it wired to 4 ohms, but it doesn't hit the same.

 

You are underpowering your subs big time. Your KAC729S is 600 watts MAX. In real world power, you never hear max power. Your amp is maybe putting out 300 watts bridged mono, maybe. Time to upgrade to a bigger amp. Bigger amp = more power = more boom.

 

any other suggestions other than buying a new amp? Does anyone know y the fuse was sparking? Should i re-wire it back to 2 ohms? HELP!

 

buy more efficient subs that don't require alot of power to drive.

 

anyone else?

 

that setup is fine but if you want it to hit like it did at 2 ohms.. your gonna have to buy a 2 ohm stable amp. like a jbl 600.1 amp. 600 watts rms @ 1,2 ohms. great amp for the $$$.

 

Would you guys suggest i wire the subs up to 8 ohms and then bridge them on the amp? that will bring it down to 4 ohms. Will this sound better?

 

get a bigger amp...thats not what you want to hear, but you're stuck with 4 ohm output as is..you can go to the hassel of wiring the subs in an 8 ohm load and bridge them on the amp to 4, but you're just going to be protecting your DVCs doing it that way..don't hook up 1 VC, but rather wire both in 4 ohm mode until you get an amp that is 2 ohm stable..I don't recall off the top of my head the wiring schematic for wiring a single DVC sub to 4 ohms is, but you would do the same except with each of your subs and run them at 300w max on each channel of your amp..I run two 10" 700w Pioneer SVC subs with a legacy series 2 1200w 4ch amp bridged into 4 ohms per pair of channels and it sounds fine..my amp isn't stable to 2 ohms in bridged mode, or I would run them at 2 ohms..

as for the sparking on your fuse..you were playing with a power connection..ever wiggled your battery terminals when they're ungreased? they spark..same thing with your fuse..loose connections = bad, so don't make it loose by wiggling it

you can pick up brand new Legacy Series 2 1200w 4 ch amps on e-bay from cmttrading for $89+ shipping..they're model number LA890..you might look at the legacy series 2 1200w 2ch amps and see if they're 2 ohm stable and wire your DVC on each sub down to 2 ohms..

 

wow never thought i'd see someone recommend a legacy amp

 

hollaatchaboi -

You indicated that the subs are dual voice coil but did not indicate the nominal resistance of each coil. Please be specific if you want good advice.

Also I am having to guess that this is a stereo class AB amp? Don't make us go to the Kenwood web site to get specifics. Tell us everything, even if you don't think we need to know.

 

some specs on that amp:

150 x 2 @ 2 ohms
100 x 2 @ 4 ohms
300 x 1 @ 4 ohms bridged

now we need more info on your subs.

 

If these are dual 4 ohm coil subs it should be easy enough to get a 4 ohm bridged load. But 300 watts is not a lot for a small sealed box. With that amount of power and a refusal to buy a new amp my preliminary advice is to build a more efficient box.

I'm still not sure about the sparking fuse issue. A fuse should not spark. If it gets enough current to cause a spark the fuse should blow. This would make us believe either the amp is faulty or not properly wired.

 

How do I wire the subs to get the 4 ohm load? The subs are Pioneer TS-W304DVC 600W max/ nom. 300W.

 

If they are dual 4 ohm, that's a big if considering you havn't told us anything important about the speakers or amp.

Series - parallel:
For both subs wire positive of one coil to the negative of the other coil. Then wire from the other two positive and negative terminals to the amps bridged terminal. Series for each sub is 8 ohms. Parallel two 8 ohm subs and you have a 4 ohm load.

Parallel - series:
Positive of one coil to positive of the other coil. Same for the negative terminal. Positive of one sub to the negative of the other sub. Then from the remaining one terminal on each sub to the bridged terminals of the amp. Two 4 ohm coils wired parallel is 2 ohms. Two 2 ohm subs wired together in series is a 4 ohm nominal load.

But don't take my word for it, read the owners manual or any speaker wiring online tutorial. I think every speaker company has the directions for series and parallel wireing on their web site.

 

make sure your subs are warm because if its cold out i dont' get nearly as much outta them

 

Definitely a plus on the cold thing. I noticed on my 12 that as soon as my car starts in the morning the sub definitely doesn't hit as hard as after the heat and the car is warmed up.

 

Cold air is denser than warm air. But I think it has more to do with the suspension not being as soft or loose as when warm. Regardless I've never noticed a big diifference but I always let the car warm up before cranking the system. It's better for the battery too.

 

How did you wire 2 4 ohm DVC Subs in a 2 ohm configuration? I'm a novice at all this but I was under the impression you can only wire it at a 1 ohm or 4 ohm configuration. Please explain, I would like to learn