Wiring Multiple Subwoofer Drivers

Yes 12 ohms is better. I've got two Dayton amps running 4 subs, all 8 ohm drivers. Tried all combinations, two and four per amp, 4, 8 & 16 ohms. Technically, on the face of it you would think that since these amps put out multiples more power into 4 than 16 that the lower the better. Probably if you care more about meters than music then 4 is better. More power! Listening to music however its clearly more tuneful and articulate, impressively so, at 16 compared to 4. Which corresponds with what Duke told me, that pretty much all his customers prefer that as well.

Your question of why they are made that way is complicated. Why they choose to design for a particular impedance is a whole different question than which sounds better when all you are changing is series/parallel.

The bigger question to me is why put all those in two cabinets when putting them in four would be so much better? The improvement you'll hear between how they are wired is nothing compared to how much better the same drivers will perform in four cabinets vs two.

Thank you for the info/response millercarbon! Sound quality is first,but I want plenty of undistorted output also. I do both music(60%) & home theater(40%). If I go 12ohm setup, my hope is that the sensitivity will be high enough(95db) I won’t need massive power to get high(110db at 25hz) quality output. But I don’t want to wire them for 12ohm & find out later I can’t get the output I need/want. The amp I plan on using will be PS Audio Stellar 700’s which output 300watts into 8 ohms.  

Regarding the cabinet choice they were pre-made by Kinergetics Audio. I don’t have 4 of them so 2 cabinets will have to do, for now. Plus, twelve 10” woofers should awesome in the sweet spot.

BTW, I called Ty from Tyler Acoustics & he suggested I go with the 5.3ohm setup.

@ptheo 

I would like to know if one is better than the other & the pros/cons of each. The two different wiring diagram I’m considering are:

2 sets of 3 series drivers run parallel= 12ohms

3 sets of 2 series drivers run parallel= 5.3333ohms

use a 5 pole two position switch on each cabinet wiring to select 12 ohm or 5.3 ohm. 

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/NKK-Switches/PS5N?qs=sGAEpiMZZMvNbjZ2WlReYnEL%252BmPFDxwPkry0E8...

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/NKK-Switches/PS5N?qs=sGAEpiMZZMvNbjZ2WlReYnEL%252BmPFDxwPkry0E8...

the 12A rated switch can stand max. 760 watts @ 5.3 ohm and the 30A switch over 4.7k watts!

ptheo, it depends on your amps and in your case with that high damping factor you can do anything you want. I would go with 5.3 ohms. This should be amazing with those amps. If you really want to thunder lay the cabinets down long side against the floor right back into the front wall right into the corners. Get two slabs of Granite (cut offs from local shop) and lay them right on top of the woofers. When and if you decide you like the set up tack the granite down with silicone caulking. This will stop a large portion of the cabinet resonance and in that position you will need just a 1/4 the power to get to a certain volume and the comb filtering should be less of a problem. The bass response won't change as much as you walk around the room. You could also use them as a book shelf:)

I don’t want to wire them for 12ohm & find out later I can’t get the output I need/want.

To be clear, what I’m saying is while you can probably measure more output because of the higher power into lower ohms, it is very hard to hear any improvement. Whereas the improvement in bass response being more articulate, fast and flat with higher impedance is very easily heard.

Put another way, the bass at 16 ohms will sound better all the time at every volume level, except for MAYBE right at the ragged edge of max volume when it gets to clipping. While the bass with 4 ohms will sound round and slow and flabby all the time at every volume level with the only advantage being it is able to go a few dB louder before clipping.

In my case the difference I heard between 16 and 4 was huge, with the sound of 8 being closer to the sound of 4 than 16. All in terms of quality. In terms of quantity, of volume, I never heard any difference at all. So like I said before, if you listen to music then you want 16. If you look at meters then 4.

Thank you imhifiman for the information on the option of using a toggle switch to switch the ohms from 5.3ohms to 12ohms on the fly Plus the schematic on how to wire the drivers for that. Much appreciated! If that works I can use position 1 for home theater(5.3ohms) for output & position 2 for music(12ohms). That would be awesome! J I’ll have to run that by my ‘audio guru’ friend(Lorin Peterson cofounder of Threshold & Coda) who is helping build them.

Mijostyn, three things. First I cannot lay them down on the floor due to space constrictions(fireplace right side, door left side.  Second, The main speaker I’ll be mating them with are 7.5’ tall(Dali MegaLines) with twelve 6.5” woofers per cabinet. I think they will blend much better next to each other. Third, the cabinets which I just got done stripping/sanding for the past 4 months are a beautiful walnut veneer(cabinets were painted black over the veneer) & I want to enjoy looking at them as much as I’m going to enjoy listening to them! They should look great once completed. I do like your idea of using granite to deaden the cabinet though. I plan on using a piece on the bottom & one on top. Thanks for the input!

 

millercarbon,  it amazes me that you & my bud Lorin believe the sound quality is so much better with the higher ohm load. Lorin did enlighten me on one fact I didn’t know- The higher the ohms load, the greater Class-A output. So a amp that does 10watts Class-A in 8ohms, will be 20watts Class-A into 16ohms. But will only do 5watts into 4ohms. So maybe that is why the increase of sound quality?! Which means less distortion also. Plus, I’m hoping the sensitivity of the speakers will be 95db so I won’t need much more power to do 105db. I just don’t want to my Jurassic Park dinosaur stomps to suffer.  Thanks for the input!

ptheo,
Actually if you read my post it says

Which corresponds with what Duke told me, that pretty much all his customers prefer that as well.

Duke being Duke LeJeune, of Audiokinesis, maker of the Swarm Subwoofer System. What I wrote is actually a little weaker than what he actually said, which was that ALL his customers who had compared preferred 16 ohms. But that is a few more words to say nearly the same thing which I thought being Duke and what with people knowing his stature it would go uncontested. Well so much for that idea. Anyway, now you know its not pretty much but ALL, I guess now you can be even more amazed.