Ok... my friend just recently bought some Memphis PR-15's, with dual 4 ohm voice coils and was looking to upgrade his amp so I sold him my, not even a year old, Volfenhag ZX-8100, 800 watt 2channel amp. After hooking it up it sounded really nice until higher volumes and it would frequently cut out on low bass and jump back in.
So I got him to help me take them out to look at them. That's when I discovered they were dual voice coil, and he was only running one on each. I wired them both for a seperate 2ohm load on each. Then put one into one channel and the other into the second.
That's when it started! A very inhibited speaker resulted! It's sounded really shoty like it wouldn't push them, but when I unhooked one out of the channel the other sounded fine! I did it with both channels seperately to each one and it was fine. So... my cousin was thinking it was putting a 1ohm load,which I knew it wasn't, on the amp which it wasn't rated for. So just to humor him, I took them out and wired them for an 8ohm load on each bridging the amp for a 4ohm load. The sound, or shoty inhibited sound had returned!
So I ask, is it just the amp, because he went and bought a powerzone crunch amp, can't remember exact model, but it sounded just fine! Whats the deal? The reason I ask is because I had it hooked up to my now stolen Alpine type R's(the dual 4ohm), and never had any problems out of it!!
Replies (9)
Ash on 11/10/2007 20:04:22
Sounds like they were playing out of phase. Might have mixed up the wiring in the process of hooking them up? Not hard to do on dvc's.
Could have been a issue with the amp also as it isn't a powerful one (2 x 15 amp fuses only). Volfenhag has had quite a bit of controversy with it's quality. At best it may ok for a pair of coax's or very low power sub (200rms?).
T-RAY on 11/10/2007 20:18:39
That's what his were rated at! My type R's were rated higher and it did fine! I checked my wiring thouroughly and all was right. I never even re-wired the subs and they were fine on his new amp! And like I said, they worked fine when he was only running one vc on each, but it kept cutting out and I figured that was prolly the reason why. I even printed a wiring diagram to check my work as I always do.
PS- I know Volfenhag is not a top tier brand, but it was wierd why it worked on former Alpine's (250-500 rms power range) and not his Memphis's...
Ash on 11/10/2007 20:32:01
It's hard to say what was wrong exactly without looking at it. But I can tell you this; running only one side of a dvc sub can cause damage.
The main thing is he got it up and running.
T-RAY on 11/10/2007 20:39:19
That's what I told him and I'm glad i found that out for him cuz he wasn't even sure how many vc's or ohm load they were so I consulted the dealer where he purchased them and that's when I took them out to look at them.
True the main thing is that the system works, but it drives me nut's always wondering why the setup was doing that! I'm usually pretty efficient on figuring problems like that out! The channels were fine with only running one at a time, but only had problem when both were operating at 2ohm load and 4! MAD MAD MAD THINK THINK MAD MAD!
Ash on 11/10/2007 20:43:21
Go figure....
You ever ran that amp in that configuration before? You mentioned you had Type R's on it. How were they ran?
T-RAY on 11/10/2007 20:50:05
They were ran 2ohm on each one through each channel. Only problem I ever had was operating at really high volumes for an extended period of time, and it would over heat even with the fan it had. Which is the reason I upgraded that amp, and prolly wont buy anymore volfenhag products, though I've heard they make decent subs!
Im an all Alpine man now!
Ash on 11/10/2007 20:59:19
Alpine, dang.... I just wish I could be a any line man! My gear is all mix and match.
The Volf subs are questionable. The red ones everyone buys advertise themselves with specs for sealed. However, when you parallel them, they render themselves to be a ported sub. Some of the confusion may be that most are using them wrong. Yes they boom in a sealed box, but after a while the stress on them becomes too much.
Blame that on Volfenhag for not giving the proper info. Usually specs are given on dvc subs in a parallel configuration.
T-RAY on 11/10/2007 21:31:26
Yeah... Im really proud of my Alpine system which this site helped my on my type X enclosure decision. My system consits of Alpine CDE-9881 HU, front 5 1/4 type r's, rear 6 1/2 type r's, PDX's-4.100 and 1.1000, and my crown jewel, the TYPE-X 12! Monster bass and ear peircing highs! I am thinking of upgrading my HU to the IVA-D105 and possibly adding another mono 1.1000 and TYPE-X 12! GRIN GRIN
swez on 11/11/2007 03:00:49
When running dual subs and testing each sub channel independently, they both sounded solid right? Then hooked both up to amp and the subs sounded poor... that usually means one sub is out of phase with the other sub.
The easy fix is to reverse polarity of one sub as wired to the amp. If both subs now sound solid, you have corrected the problem. If they sound worse then before, there's other issues to look deeper for.
Swez
So I got him to help me take them out to look at them. That's when I discovered they were dual voice coil, and he was only running one on each. I wired them both for a seperate 2ohm load on each. Then put one into one channel and the other into the second.
That's when it started! A very inhibited speaker resulted! It's sounded really shoty like it wouldn't push them, but when I unhooked one out of the channel the other sounded fine! I did it with both channels seperately to each one and it was fine. So... my cousin was thinking it was putting a 1ohm load,which I knew it wasn't, on the amp which it wasn't rated for. So just to humor him, I took them out and wired them for an 8ohm load on each bridging the amp for a 4ohm load. The sound, or shoty inhibited sound had returned!
So I ask, is it just the amp, because he went and bought a powerzone crunch amp, can't remember exact model, but it sounded just fine! Whats the deal? The reason I ask is because I had it hooked up to my now stolen Alpine type R's(the dual 4ohm), and never had any problems out of it!!
Replies (9)
Ash on 11/10/2007 20:04:22
Sounds like they were playing out of phase. Might have mixed up the wiring in the process of hooking them up? Not hard to do on dvc's.
Could have been a issue with the amp also as it isn't a powerful one (2 x 15 amp fuses only). Volfenhag has had quite a bit of controversy with it's quality. At best it may ok for a pair of coax's or very low power sub (200rms?).
T-RAY on 11/10/2007 20:18:39
That's what his were rated at! My type R's were rated higher and it did fine! I checked my wiring thouroughly and all was right. I never even re-wired the subs and they were fine on his new amp! And like I said, they worked fine when he was only running one vc on each, but it kept cutting out and I figured that was prolly the reason why. I even printed a wiring diagram to check my work as I always do.
PS- I know Volfenhag is not a top tier brand, but it was wierd why it worked on former Alpine's (250-500 rms power range) and not his Memphis's...
Ash on 11/10/2007 20:32:01
It's hard to say what was wrong exactly without looking at it. But I can tell you this; running only one side of a dvc sub can cause damage.
The main thing is he got it up and running.
T-RAY on 11/10/2007 20:39:19
That's what I told him and I'm glad i found that out for him cuz he wasn't even sure how many vc's or ohm load they were so I consulted the dealer where he purchased them and that's when I took them out to look at them.
True the main thing is that the system works, but it drives me nut's always wondering why the setup was doing that! I'm usually pretty efficient on figuring problems like that out! The channels were fine with only running one at a time, but only had problem when both were operating at 2ohm load and 4! MAD MAD MAD THINK THINK MAD MAD!
Ash on 11/10/2007 20:43:21
Go figure....
You ever ran that amp in that configuration before? You mentioned you had Type R's on it. How were they ran?
T-RAY on 11/10/2007 20:50:05
They were ran 2ohm on each one through each channel. Only problem I ever had was operating at really high volumes for an extended period of time, and it would over heat even with the fan it had. Which is the reason I upgraded that amp, and prolly wont buy anymore volfenhag products, though I've heard they make decent subs!
Im an all Alpine man now!
Ash on 11/10/2007 20:59:19
Alpine, dang.... I just wish I could be a any line man! My gear is all mix and match.
The Volf subs are questionable. The red ones everyone buys advertise themselves with specs for sealed. However, when you parallel them, they render themselves to be a ported sub. Some of the confusion may be that most are using them wrong. Yes they boom in a sealed box, but after a while the stress on them becomes too much.
Blame that on Volfenhag for not giving the proper info. Usually specs are given on dvc subs in a parallel configuration.
T-RAY on 11/10/2007 21:31:26
Yeah... Im really proud of my Alpine system which this site helped my on my type X enclosure decision. My system consits of Alpine CDE-9881 HU, front 5 1/4 type r's, rear 6 1/2 type r's, PDX's-4.100 and 1.1000, and my crown jewel, the TYPE-X 12! Monster bass and ear peircing highs! I am thinking of upgrading my HU to the IVA-D105 and possibly adding another mono 1.1000 and TYPE-X 12! GRIN GRIN
swez on 11/11/2007 03:00:49
When running dual subs and testing each sub channel independently, they both sounded solid right? Then hooked both up to amp and the subs sounded poor... that usually means one sub is out of phase with the other sub.
The easy fix is to reverse polarity of one sub as wired to the amp. If both subs now sound solid, you have corrected the problem. If they sound worse then before, there's other issues to look deeper for.
Swez
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