What Does A Voice Coil Serve To Do? (1 Viewer)

[Chuck C]

I see them referred to all the time with subwoofers. So what's it all mean?

 

[Jared_B]

In very simple terms (cause that's how I understand it):

The voice coil is a cylinder shaped thingy wound up with copper wire. This tube fits inside the magnet assembly, with one end attached to the speaker cone. When electrical current is applied to the wire in alternating phases, the tube gets a magnetic charge. This charge allows the voicecoil to move back and forth, which moves the speaker cone, causing sound waves.

Jared

 

[Kevin P]

A voice coil is simply an electromagnet. The electrical signal from your amplifier or receiver goes through the voice coil in the speaker driver. The magnetic field generated by the coil reacts with the fixed magnetic field created by the magnet in the speaker, which causes the coil to be pushed out or pulled in (depending on the signal at that instant of time). The coil is attached to the speaker cone (or dome or ribbon in the case of tweeters), which in turn pushes air, which produces the sound.

In short, the combination of the voice coil and magnet make up a simple "motor" that drives the speaker.

KJP

 

[jeff lam]

I think he may be asking "Why is two better than one"? I too am wondering this. Is there more to it than just impedance options? Performance?

Oops sorry, I thought he was asking about DVC's.

Well, can anyone answer it for me?

 

[Chuck C]

thanks yall

 

[SamRoza]

As far as I know, the main reason for DVC's is Parallel wiring schemes and dropping the impedance down to 2 or less ohms(at least in Car Audio).

DVCs aren't used much in HT subs.

As stated above, Voice coils with the magnet make up the motor structure that makes sound from a driver.

Sam

 

[Kevin P]

Actually, dual voice coils were originally created to make it possible to feed a stereo signal into a single subwoofer, as is commonly done in passive sub setups.

Of course, DVCs also give you multiple impedance options, by wiring the coils in series or parallel, or only using one, or shorting one coil for damping purposes, etc.

KJP

 

[Patrick Sun]

If you're into making your own subwoofer, you'll find quite a few DVC offerings for the drivers to use.

 

[Steve>JF]

Here's a question: My subwoofer has two RCA jacks on the back. The instructions say to connect the subwoofer from my receiver to the left jack if only one output is provided by my receiver. However, I heard that I could connect a female to two male RCA adapter to the sub out jack of my receiver and connect the two RCA jacks to my subwoofer in RCA female connections. Is that a something that I would want to do? Does that mean that my subwoofer has two voice coils and I can connect them both to my sub out connection on my receiver?

 

[Robert_J]

Does that mean that my subwoofer has two voice coils and I can connect them both to my sub out connection on my receiver?

No, it means that your plate amp and dual inputs that are combined into a mono signal. I have connected a plate amp to a single voice coil sub, a dual voice coil sub wired in parallel and a dual voice coil sub wired in series.

Just to make things more confusing, some car audio subs are available in quad coil configurations.

-Robert

 

[DavidSGT]

Hiya Steve,

Some say that if you do connect L and R on your sub input(with the Y plug and 2 rca's) it does help on signal gain, so your sub doesn't fall asleep, with its auto detect function thing but whether it adds in sonic quality....

Regards.

David

 

[Steve>JF]

Thanks guys. I'm going to try it with the Y adapter and see if it makes a difference. To be continued...