Connecting Your Subwoofer to Your Amplifier

CONNECTING YOUR SUBWOOFER TO YOUR AMPLIFIER

The GT5-12 subwoofer has a single

4-ohm voice coil. Be sure to consider your ampliﬁer’s optimum load when designing a subwoofer system. Many bridgeable 2-channel ampliﬁers are optimized to drive a single 4-ohm woofer in bridged mode. If you will use multiple woofers, be sure to conﬁgure them to extract all the power available from your ampliﬁer.

2.	Most ampliﬁers deliver exactly
	the same amount of power
	bridged into a 4-ohm load
	as they do driving a 2-ohm
	stereo load.
3.	If you are designing a multiple-
	woofer system, be sure to conﬁgure
	the woofers so that they each
	receive the same amount of

a. The total system impedance of voice coils (or woofers) in series can be calculated using the formula:

Impedance = w1 + w2 + w3 ...

b. The total system impedance of woofers in parallel can be calculated using the formula:

Figure 1. Connecting two woofers in series to the ampliﬁer (8 ohms)

Red

Black

Red

Black

Positive

Negative

Positive

Negative

To Amp	To Amp
Positive	Negative

When designing a subwoofer system,

power from the ampliﬁer. Never

Impedance =

consider the following rules:

1.Do not mix different subwoofers or enclosure types in the same system. Subwoofers being used in the same enclosure or powered by the same ampliﬁer should

be identical models. Mismatched woofers and enclosures can result in poor system performance.

connect two identical woofers in

series and then connect that pair

to another woofer in parallel. If

your system will include an odd

number of woofers, be sure to

connect all the woofers in either

series or parallel according to

the rules that follow, in order to

maximize the power available

from your ampliﬁer:

w11 + w12 + w13 ...

where w is the nominal impedance of the woofer.

The diagrams at right show series and parallel speaker connections.

Figure 2. Connecting two woofers in parallel to the ampliﬁer (2 ohms)

Red Black

Positive Negative