Subwoofers

Subwoofer Wiring Not A Task For The Beginner

If you just purchased a new subwoofer or plan to buy one shortly, you need to make sure you understand subwoofer wiring. If you don't wire it correctly, it either won't work at all or you won't get the sound quality you desire out of your new subwoofer. You don't always need a professional installer to help you with your subwoofer wiring as there are many places online where you can find wiring diagrams and examples of how to wire a subwoofer.

Most experts agree that the possibilities of wiring a subwoofer properly actually depend on the number of subwoofers involved. The subwoofer wiring is in fact quite important if you truly want a home theater experience that rivals that of a movie theater. Basically you can have up to three sets of subwoofers in you sound system. And in each case, there can be several different subwoofer wiring options available to you.

Subwoofer Wiring Possibilities

Single Subwoofer
For a single subwoofer, you can have subwoofer wiring of either:

2-ohm DVC 1-ohm load or 4-ohm load
4-ohm DVC 2-ohm load or 8-ohm load
4-ohm SVC 4-ohm load
8-ohm SVC 8-ohm load.

Double Subwoofer
For two set of subwoofers, the subwoofer wiring can range from:
2-ohm DVC .5-ohm load
2-ohm load,
8-ohm load,
4-ohm DVC 1-ohm load or 4-ohm load,
4-ohm SVC 2-ohm load
8 ohm load 8-ohm SVC 4-ohm load.

Triple Subwoofer
For three subwoofer, the subwoofer wiring can be:

2-ohm DVC 1.34-ohm load
3-ohm load
4-ohm DVC 2.67-ohm load
4-ohm SVC 1.34-ohm load
8-ohm SVC 2.67-ohm load.

And if you want to add more subwoofers to your setup for even more punch, you can. But you may want to seek professional advice or hunt for guidelines online. Some of the online websites offer subwoofer wiring diagram systems.

For those who do not have any idea of what this is all about, this is basically the wiring configuration done in your subwoofer installation, especially if you do not buy a powered subwoofer, but instead you plan on installing and setting it all up yourself. It involves a component sub in a box hooked to an amplifier. This can be quite complicated!

The subwoofer wiring is generally dependant on the "load" capability of the amplifier and the impedance of your subwoofers. Impedance is the amount of electrical resistance that a speaker places in the amplifier. A typical 2-channel amplifier gives you outputs for two speakers (2 outputs does not necessarily mean limited to only 2 subwoofers). With your own setup, your subwoofer wiring can have up to 4 subwoofers at a time. It has to be noted that usually the lower the impedance or the "load" the amplifier sees, the more power it will produce, and thus you will get louder and better music plays as well.

So, as you can see, subwoofer wiring is a bit complicated and there is a lot of physics involved. However, if you do some searching online you can probably find a diagram that matches your setup fairly closely. Or, if you don't want to mess with it, hire a professional who can, more than likely, figure it all out in a short amount of time and have your subwoofers wired correctly the first time.

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