Cajuntriton

Question for the audio gurus. I just purchased the Pioneer Shallow Mount 2ohm DVC 8" sub to swap out with the Sony in hopes of adding a little better low end. I was not expecting a day and night difference and some notes are better sounding but I can tell it's very under powered and I lost some volume. So if the stock sub is 1ohm and this is 2ohm wired as it was stock I'm guessing I'm getting half power. Could I not wire the sub in stereo like stock (one set of aftermarket wires into each voice coil) but using the stock wires going into the box select one positive from one channel and one negative from another to bridge it back to 1ohm? It would be no more load on the amp I just don't know if it can be bridged. Thanks

BTW, I had to build a ring to lift it to fit, it's the bottom curve in the box touching due to the shallow very wide magnet on the sub. I'm using a little loose poly fill too. I'm still uncertain on just how much poly fill I should use.

Thanks for any and all help. I'm just trying to avoid hooking up an amp. Next weekend I'm swapping out front doors and the center.

Schlotzky

I can't speak to the ability of the factory amp to bridge, but I'm curious about this swap myself. I feel the factory sub is a little too loud relative to the rest of the system and doesn't blend well with the music and is also pretty boomy. I might be interested in this swap if it cuts the sub output slightly and cleans up the boominess in favor of some tighter clarity. Can you elaborate on your description of the sound as is?

What speakers are you going with? The only speaker I replaced was the center speaker, but it really revealed how terrible the voice command voice is with her S's and I ended up putting the factory center in, intending to replace the rest and decide on the center later.

Cajuntriton

It's really hard to say, it's noticeably lower output on all sources accept USB it actually seems close in volume and a deeper bass. It's not worth the change and work for what you will get either way IMO. It needs more power so I'm hoping it's possible to bridge the factory amp.

Polk DB's in the doors.

Cajuntriton

I also have a kicker for the center channel, I'm a little worried on if it will mess with the fake engine sound.

Cajuntriton

Definitely not as loud with the new sub, had my first real drive this morning and it's a step backwards. Either I can bridge this amp , add a amp, or just go back to stock and chalk it up as a waste of time and money.

J15

If you get to the point of adding your own amp, ditch the 8" sub and get a quality 12" shallow mount to throw under the seat. Custom built enclosures are available to match the contours of the floor.

Cajuntriton

Thanks for the input but I want to stay behind the seat. I won't give up the Duha storage. I can't believe how much I lost and all this time I thought most of the bass came from the doors. Guess I underestimated the stock subs output. No one has commented if it is possible to bridge the stock amp back to 1ohm so this weekend I'm probably just going to put the stock sub back in or I'll spending more money, decisions, decisions.

hvfc6040

You need to go to a professional. Subs don't get wIred in stereo, and you can't bridge a single channel amp...

Schlotzky

Good point. We're not talking about bridging here at all, just the difference between parallel and series wiring.

So, what's the wiring configuration of the factory sub? Are we sure the factory sub is 2ohm DVC, 1 ohm final load? Are there two or four wires plugging into the actual subwoofer?

If it's two, you just need to run the positive and negative to one coil on new sub and run jumpers to the opposite coil (parallel wiring resulting in 1ohm load to the amp). This is assuming you're currently wired in series (4ohm final load, which is actually 1/4 factory power [assuming factory load is 1ohm; I can't speak to this]) which is one positive to one coil and the negative to the other coil with a jumper wire connecting the two remaining terminals.

If there are four wires, you'll need to isolate the wires for the individual coils on the factory sub and connect those two circuits the same way to your new sub. But it would surprise me if ford was using a factory DVC sub as there's no real advantage to this for a factory system.

Cajuntriton

Thanks for the input. I'm not going to pretend to be a professional but at 39 and having many aftermarket systems in my younger days I've installed my share. My last Ram truck I was happy enough with it so I left it alone but this Sony is lacking and after 2 years I had a wild hair and decided to try and upgrade. These minor stock system upgrades are quite different I'll admit then back in the day with ripping everything out and starting from scratch.

Stock Sub is a DVC and 1ohm ea, 2 sets of wires from amp hence 2 channels. Each is wired straight to 1 voice coil each (stereo). New sub is DVC 2ohm I wired same as factory so half the power going to the sub and from my knowledge only way to get to 1ohm is to bridge 2 channels from stock amp into 1. Wiring voice coils together in parallel won't help since I still have two sets of wires (channels) from stock amp which will mean I would have to pick one channel and still be at half power. My primary question is if it's possible to bridge stock amp to get to 1ohm. If anyone knows another way to get to 1ohm with this 2ohm sub I'm all ears and thanks in advance.