Single Voice Coil Vs. Dual Voice Coil Subwoofers
by Mona Prestenbach
Subwoofers produce very low frequency sounds also known as bass. Subwoofers can be wired with either single- or dual-voice coils. The coil wiring in the subwoofer works with current sent from the amplifier to produce sound.
Single-Voice Coil
Single-voice coils will offer one set of negative and positive terminals. These terminals are used to connect audio equipment to the subwoofer. There is a single coil wrapped around the speaker cylinder. Single-voice coil subwoofers can only be wired for the ohm (the amount of current the speaker will draw) specified.
Dual-Voice Coil
Dual-voice coils offer two sets of negative and positive terminals. Two coils are wrapped around the speaker cylinder in a dual-voice coil. Dual-voice has multiple wiring options such as parallel, series and independent wiring. Parallel wiring produces the most output. Series wiring is using one amplifier with several subwoofers; independent wiring is using one coil per channel.
Compared
The prominent difference between single-voice coil subwoofers and dual-voice subwoofers is that the dual-voice have more wiring options. In most cases, single- and dual-voice subwoofers offer the same frequency, power and box specifications.