How to wire multiple subs to your amplifier | Crutchfield

When you design a car audio system with more than one sub, you have a choice in how you connect them. In this video, Cris from our Tech Support department demonstrates the difference between parallel and series wiring, and why you might choose one over the other.

Cris walks you through two wiring scenarios: parallel and series. Parallel wiring halves the load presented to your amplifier — do it this way if you have two 4-ohm subs and a 2-ohm stable amplifier, for instance. Series wiring is additive; you might wire two 2-ohm subs in order to present a 4-ohm load to your amplifier.

Those are just two examples, and the end result is you want to present the proper load to your amp to extract as much power and performance as you can.

0:00 Intro
0:16 Parallel wiring basics
0:45 Series wiring basics
1:25 How to wire in parallel
3:53 Mono amps with two sets of terminals
6:27 When you want to wire in series
7:23 How to wire in series
10:32 Dual voice coil subs
11:28 Recap and contact info

[wadeball]

I wish I could shake this man's hand. Tge amount of trouble I had with my amp and subs is insane. Seriously thank you so much

[Dcthetruth]

I just got into car audio this year and this has become an expensive hobby but rewarding for my two vehicles.

[MasterofPrayer]

I recently got myself a RF P1 12 inch SUB as well as (2) 8 inch RF P1 Punch SUBS with a RF Prime R4x300 AMP I was completely in the dark as to how to hook these up, but this video completely simplified everything for me. Thank you Sir.

[jsingh]

I hope you get the car of your dreams and win the lottery you absolute legend.

[Teknakill]

Hooking up two 300 watt JL 12s on a 500 watt max amp in series will work great. 8ohms is good because it will not over tax the amp and still have more than enough bass to enjoy music at a resonable level, so I don't go deaf.
Crutchfield is the best audio provider for all your needs and has the best tutorials. THANK YOU!

[diegodavila]

Best video I could find that could adapt to my need of wiring up 6 and 8 ohm speakers to my 8 ohm vintage amplifier! Most people recommend wiring in parallel (and I understand why) but in my case, I needed to wire this stuff up in series, since I cannot go below 4 ohms without putting my amp at risk. Thanks a lot!

[jesseallengarza]

Wow the exact video I needed very well spoken and clear

[EduardoReyes-pjlu]

I can't explain how helpful this video was with my project, thank you.

[ItsGioShawn]

I know this video is pretty old but this absolutely helped me with my beatmania arcade project since those machines use two subs, thank you!!!

[rickellsworth]

He broke it down in layman’s terms for everybody who did not understand

[esti]

So these aren't dual voice coil woofers? Do a video with dual voice coil woofers please.

[sereylim]

GREAT TEACHING !! I LIKE HOW U EXPLAIN EVERYTHING 🙂

[CreepDjsDC]

brother this helped me tf out so much!! thank you!!!!🙌🙌

[samwiseme]

Just remember one thing: never wire speakers that utilize crossover networks in series. There is potential for degraded sound and even electrical damage. Subwoofers that do not have crossovers (some do) are fine, but not 2 way or three way speakers.

[hztolife]

Question: In the Series demonstration, you used the Sony amp to hook up the subs to one set of terminals. Would a second set of series wired subs hooked up to the second set of terminals in the Sony Amp be seen as parallel? Thus creating a 4 ohms out put for 4 subs?

[dylanwoods]

Do you notice a difference in sound quality when splitting the connections? I would assume less power means worse sound quality. Is it better to just run another wiring kit?

[ishaan]

Always like your video for this type of content. My fingers automatically hit like button after watching this types of amazing contents.

[OGbqze]

I'm wiring 20, 4ohm svc subs to a 2ohm final impedence. Gonna try and figure out how to do this, and if I HAVE to I could buy a 1ohm rated amp if I have to wire it to 1ohm.

[jayjohal]

I have to install 12 round ceiling speakers in a salon this weekend! Please tell me which spec amp to buy and which spec speakers also to get the best sound? And do i wire series or parallel?? Would really appreciate your expertise on this?

[GabrielMadrigal-nx]

I have 2 300 watt 10” subs I want to put into my car. Should a 1100 watt max power 2-4 ohm mono block do the job?is it overkill?

Also I’m running 4 6.5” 400 watt 3ohm door speakers with no amp.What would you recommend for that?
Thanks.