Need help with subwoofer please (1 Viewer)

[Rgoat101]

So I'm new to audio and I have all klipsch speakers ran to an onkyo tx nr797 receiver everything works great no issues I also bought a dayton um18 subwoofer in the sealed build yourself box and here lies my problem lol. I got a rockville rpa16 amp and built my box and wired the sub in series I think its called where I connected negative and positive from opposite sides the the other 2 neg/pos to my terminal. No clue if that was right or not but that's how I did it. I bought a cord that was an xlr to rca connector because the amp took xlr and the receiver seemed to only have rca sub output. So I hooked it up fired it up and it was working I guess but just barely and when I tried turning the dB up and volume it was clipping like crazy and shut off.. I just quit Messing with it out of fear of blowing something so I figured I'd ask here for someone with actual knowledge willing to guide me a bit. Appreciate any help and im dying to get this baby going and hear it!! Thanks

 

[JohnRice]

Connecting in series should be correct, since it would take the 2ohm coils to 4. The problem could be if you are bridging the amp to one channel, which takes it back to 2ohm, which the amp is not rated for.

 

[Rgoat101]

I've tried to bridge it to amp and ran them in normally just on channel A and get the same results

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

I can’t tell from your description of you have an actual series connection or not.

On the Dayton speaker, use a jumper to connect the (-) terminal of the first pair of terminals to the (+) of the second pair. Connect the speaker cable (from the amp) to the remaining (+) and (-) terminals. That will get you a series connection and 4-ohm load to the amplifier.

If it’s connected parallel, you have a 1-ohm load.

It sounds like you may have connected parallel, but instead of the usual (1+) -> (2+) and (1-) -> (2-,) you went (1+) -> (2-) and (1-) -> (2+). If so, it means you have a 1-ohm parallel connection with the two voice coils wired out of phase. That would certainly result in what you experienced: No output with the amp shutting down because it’s overloaded.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[JohnRice]

LOL! Yeah, wiring the two coils out of phase could open a portal to a hell dimension. At the least, it would shut down the amp.

That does sound like what’s happened.