hi guys

i just got a sub for my car it's xtreme 12", dual 4 ohm voice coil.

right now i'm running it bridged on my budget audioline 200*2 amp (came with the car), but it's wired in parallel to 2 ohm configuration, i know this gets more power from the amp but i'm doubting the amp is stable cos it gets hot quickly.

what i need help on is, whether i should rewire it to run in series, 8 ohms; or just normal on 1 coil and short out the other one of the voice coil, which i think will turn it into 4 ohms.

which one gives be the best sq, and it would be helpful to minimise the damage to the amp, although if it does die then i have a good excuse to get a better one.

or alternatively i can run my mtx rt404 bridged on one channel to the subbie and use my audioline to run my fronts or backs, whichever i don't mind.

which do you recommend or do you guys think its safe to keep everything the way it is, audioline for sub at 2 ohm and mtx for speakers at normal 4 ohm. i know for sure the mtx cannot be bridged to 2 ohm.

You'll wanna upgrade ur amp. I dont think the 2x200 puts out 2x200wrms. It isnt stable at 2 ohms so ul be doing damage, and at 8 ohm you wouldnt be getting the most out of ur sub.

Go a monoblock thats stable at 2 ohms. Whats the rms rating of your sub?

Does ur amp ever go into protection?

I'd play it at 2 ohm as loud as you can until you bust it... Make sure its not clipping/distorting as you'll be damaging ur sub as well. Alternatively the 2x200 audioline will be plenty to drive some decent front splits... (high pass them too)

Definately don't run a 2 channel bridged to a 2ohm load.. very few seem to be rated for it.. ESPEACIALLYin the budget end of the market.
From what I can work out, bridgeing the amp in the first place causes it to see a 4ohm load as 2ohm (hence the power hike), & when you hook up an actual 2ohm load, the amp will see 1ohm = lots of current, & possibly lots of smoke.

Either run one channel to each coil or;

Take the sub back, & get a single coil 4ohm & bridge both channels to it (probly ur best & cheapest/easiest option as a a SVC should be cheaper then a DVC in the 1st place) or;

Buy a small/medium Mono amp... they're almost always stable to 2ohm.

Hope this helps.

thanks sandman, i'll be looking at some class d's from now on then.