Is there performance difference between wiring a driver in series vs parallel?

[Weigel21]

Alright, over on "another forum" there's a thread that's turning into a shit show, however, it does get me wondering.

Many manufacturers post T/S parameters of DVC drivers with the voice coils in series, but I don't, or at least didn't often see T/S parameters listed with voice coils wired in parallel. Why is that BTW?

So, with this thread on "the other forum" the OP talked about how the subwoofer performed so much better wired for a higher impedance. Can't say I have experienced such myself, but I've never had the opportunity arise where I could easily change the sub's impedance and still give it the same amount of power to make any sort of a "fair" comparison.

So, without turning this into a shit show, can we discuss what sort of differences there will be a when doing such, assuming you can feed the driver the same amount of power wired either way, using the same amp so it's not a variable in why the driver may perform "better" one way or the other.

Everything I've read in the past when DVC Subs came out indicated there was no difference in the way the sub performed, it was merely a way to get more flexible wiring options.

Still, if the parameters do change some depending on voice coil wiring configuration, could/would the driver behave differently enough to make an audible difference?

Edit.
Actually, "performace difference" is probably not the right way to put it.

[JCsAudio]

I believe DVC subwoofers came out to give car audio people more wiring and power choices from back in the day when high power amplifiers were expensive or they overheated easily because they were class AB and inefficient. Back then an easier way to extract more power was to reduced the impedance of the speaker driver so that you could get more power from that same amplifier and with DVC you had choices based so you could best match the driver to your amplifiers rating. This is especially handy when wiring multiple drivers in any series or parallel or combination of both configurations you wanted to arrive at an impedance that would work with your amplifier. This also allowed manufacturers to sell more drivers. Manufacturers list the TS parameters wired in series just because they look better with bigger numbers. An example is the BL number.

Back then there were those that would argue that when you used a lower impedance drivers that you lost something in terms of sound caused by such things as damping factor and that this was going to degrade the sound even though there was no evidence of such witchcraft actually making a difference. The fact of the matter is it makes no audible difference other than when you wiring in series the loudness is reduced due to the reduced power the amplifier can send. I’ve tried it a few times now and it makes so little difference that it’s not worth making any sacrifices in my opinion.

Here is an article by a very well respected expert that dispels the damping factor myth. If you still believe damping factor makes an audible difference after reading this than god help you,

https://www.audiofrog.com/community/...of-a-factor-2/

[BigAl205]

I'm no expert, but I play one on the interwebz. Others can chime in, but this has been my experience.

When you run voice coils in parallel, the amp is seeing half the impedance of a single VC, therefore it basically produces twice the power. If the VCs are wired in series, the amp sees twice the impedance of a single VC, and therefore produces half the power. The advantage of running higher impedance is the amp doesn't have to work as hard (lower heat) and there is an increase in damping factor (control of the sub)...however, the sub isn't getting as much power, which will affect output.

So wiring the voice coils in series my give you lower output, but can increase the "punchiness" of the woofer because the amp has better control over the sub.

[Hillbilly SQ]

Meh, I do what the install calls for. Now here's a wrench for this thread that is someone on topic. What causes a single 4 and d4 sub to need VERY different box size to get similar results on paper? The Dayton ho10-4 and ho10-44 are a perfect example of this. The d4 needs more than double the box to get similar results of the single 4 when modeled. This is why I won't hardly recommend a sub for a specific enclosure size anymore unless I can go model it myself to verify that small box gem isn't an air pig in the other coil configuration. I've also modeled subs that didn't have enough box size difference to matter over the different coil configurations. This is why you should always verify on your own before trusting a marketing department.

[Weigel21]

Yeah, that's all I ever heard about years ago, it just gave more wiring options, but that honestly made little to no sense to me. Many manufacturers had SVC drivers in 2 ohm, 4 ohm, and 8 ohm options, JL audio is one of them that comes to mind, as the 10W0-4 is what I was running and they offered the driver as a 10W0-2 and 10W0-8.

I mean if you know what final impedance you are wanting/needing, then what's the point of a DVC driver. How often does a guy decide to rewire a setup, I mean one would typically wire a setup for optimal performance, in which case, they'd already know what impedance they need.

Hillbilly SQ, I think I've seen such before as well. That was/is something I didn't understand either. If the driver was supposed to be the same, just offer multiple wiring options (which I still don't fully understand the need for) then yeah, why would it require a different enclosure. In fact, I believe I've seen models that one was better suited for sealed applications, while the other was much better suited for ported. Another oddity if they are "supposed" to be the same.

In the end, the only time I see a DVC driver being worth getting over a SVC, is if you are into SPL competitions and want to wire to a super low impedance for a burp, then "rewire" for daily operation so as not to fry the sub(s) or amp.

[Hillbilly SQ]

I run a d4 because my amp makes the most power at 2 ohms (350 at 4 and 600 at 2 iirc), but if given the choice between a single 4 or d2 I'll choose the single 4 every time. I do find it borderline humorous that you can take a .7 box and a pair of ho10-4's would be just as happy as a single ho10-44 would be in the same box.

[Grinder]

As for the DVC thing, back in the mid '80s my first subwoofer was a 10" D4 Eminence (parcel shelf "IB" in a '71 Colt coupe, LOL), on a Sanyo PA6110 (50W x 2), one coil per channel...

[Smitty]

I believe DVC subwoofers came out to give car audio people more wiring and power choices from back in the day when high power amplifiers were expensive or they overheated easily because they were class AB and inefficient. Back then an easier way to extract more power was to reduced the impedance of the speaker driver so that you could get more power from that same amplifier and with DVC you had choices based so you could best match the driver to your amplifiers rating. This is especially handy when wiring multiple drivers in any series or parallel or combination of both configurations you wanted to arrive at an impedance that would work with your amplifier. This also allowed manufacturers to sell more drivers. Manufacturers list the TS parameters wired in series just because they look better with bigger numbers. An example is the BL number.

Back then there were those that would argue that when you used a lower impedance drivers that you lost something in terms of sound caused by such things as damping factor and that this was going to degrade the sound even though there was no evidence of such witchcraft actually making a difference. The fact of the matter is it makes no audible difference other than when you wiring in series the loudness is reduced due to the reduced power the amplifier can send. I’ve tried it a few times now and it makes so little difference that it’s not worth making any sacrifices in my opinion.

Here is an article by a very well respected expert that dispels the damping factor myth. If you still believe damping factor makes an audible difference after reading this than god help you,

https://www.audiofrog.com/community/...of-a-factor-2/

I wish I would have had that article 27 years ago....wow I sound old.
I participated in an experiment with a group of audio enthusiasts. With quality components, doing blind comparison with subwoofers made no statistically significant differences.
With some very low end amps, one set being Kraco, there was such an obvious difference that we believe it had more to do a crappy amplifier not really being 2 ohm stable.
It is interesting what we can convince ourselves of. Another test we did involved tweeters. We found that an accurate high quality tweeter is just that. Not all soft domes are smooth and not all hard domes are harsh or bright. Accurate sound is accurate sound.

[Truthunter]

Here is an article by a very well respected expert that dispels the damping factor myth. If you still believe damping factor makes an audible difference after reading this than god help you,

https://www.audiofrog.com/community/...of-a-factor-2/

I agree, in most situations, a lower output impedance (higher damping factor) will provide little to no audible improvement. But IME, a high damping factor on a boxless sub (IB, trunk baffle, Dipole) makes an audible difference. The higher efficiency and lower power handling (not thermal but excursion wise) of such a system also reduces the impact of less power too.

[Queef]

For "sound pressure level" competitors will wire their sub in parallel to get highest dBs. I purchased a 1 ohm dvc DD model G with a carbon fiber cone and wired it @ 1/2 ohm in a sealed box . . . W0W , frickin amazing " HIT " !