[doctahgonzo]

I'm helping a friend design and build Hifi Cabinets for his house. He doesn't speak English very well, and ended up purchasing two JBL W15gti DVC subwoofers, against my advice.
My question is, how to wire these subwoofers. they are rated at 6 ohms each. The setup will be an active 3 way crossover to two amplifiers. One of the amplifiers will be for these subwoofers. The other speakers are rated at 8 ohms.

How exactly should i wire these subwoofers. Parallel, in series, or a combination? And at what ohms? I'm still in the design stage, and I don't know what amplifier to get, since I don't know how exactly to wire these. I'm used to 4 ohms, 8 ohms, or 16 ohms. Just not 6. Any help would be great, thanks!

 

[Docethic]

If you wire the VC's and both subs in parallel, the amp will see a 1.5 ohm load or 6 ohms if you wire the VCs in series then both subs in parallel. JBL designed these so that 3 could be run at once at a final 1 ohm load which is the lowest most car amplifiers can handle. Depending on what amp you are looking at getting for your friend, the 6 ohm may work, otherwise you will need to find a 1 ohm stable amp. From what I have read about them, people do like those subs for home theater and have good ultra low frequency extension for being car audio designed subs.

 

[Alan P]

Also, what enclosure are you using for the subs??

 

[doctahgonzo]

I Believe he is building a cabinet to house all three speakers, the 15'' subs, the horns, and tweeters? I saw that he had the plans in the works for them, although not readily built. I just wanted to know how to wire these, in order to purchase the amplifier for him.

 

[Alan P]

Does he have knowledge in speaker building? If not, he can't just throw them in any old cabinet/box and expect them to perform.

 

[doctahgonzo]

The enclosure is essential to subwoofers, I know this. Also, being that i am converting these to in home use, it is even more important since car subwoofers are usually set for smaller spaces, and different frequencies.

I was able to find a spec sheet for the enclosure dimensions, for in home use, that somebody posted on some forums a couple years back. I gave that to him, and he has been working on it. The first few, I had to tell him to throw out, because we has recently gotten the horns, and changed our minds. Should we use an all in one enclosure with the horns do you think? And do you know of any enclosure specifications sheets out there for in home use of these subwoofers? Or even any good sites with lists of plans. I would love to compare them to what we have planned so far.

 

[Alan P]

You may want to post this in the DIY section, those guys really know their stuff.

 

[doctahgonzo]

Anyone have any suggestions on which amplifier to use?