Wiring Multiple Subwoofer Drivers

ptheo,
Actually if you read my post it says

Which corresponds with what Duke told me, that pretty much all his customers prefer that as well.

Duke being Duke LeJeune, of Audiokinesis, maker of the Swarm Subwoofer System. What I wrote is actually a little weaker than what he actually said, which was that ALL his customers who had compared preferred 16 ohms. But that is a few more words to say nearly the same thing which I thought being Duke and what with people knowing his stature it would go uncontested. Well so much for that idea. Anyway, now you know its not pretty much but ALL, I guess now you can be even more amazed.

I don’t want to wire them for 12ohm & find out later I can’t get the output I need/want.

To be clear, what I’m saying is while you can probably measure more output because of the higher power into lower ohms, it is very hard to hear any improvement. Whereas the improvement in bass response being more articulate, fast and flat with higher impedance is very easily heard.

Put another way, the bass at 16 ohms will sound better all the time at every volume level, except for MAYBE right at the ragged edge of max volume when it gets to clipping. While the bass with 4 ohms will sound round and slow and flabby all the time at every volume level with the only advantage being it is able to go a few dB louder before clipping.

In my case the difference I heard between 16 and 4 was huge, with the sound of 8 being closer to the sound of 4 than 16. All in terms of quality. In terms of quantity, of volume, I never heard any difference at all. So like I said before, if you listen to music then you want 16. If you look at meters then 4.

Yes 12 ohms is better. I've got two Dayton amps running 4 subs, all 8 ohm drivers. Tried all combinations, two and four per amp, 4, 8 & 16 ohms. Technically, on the face of it you would think that since these amps put out multiples more power into 4 than 16 that the lower the better. Probably if you care more about meters than music then 4 is better. More power! Listening to music however its clearly more tuneful and articulate, impressively so, at 16 compared to 4. Which corresponds with what Duke told me, that pretty much all his customers prefer that as well.

Your question of why they are made that way is complicated. Why they choose to design for a particular impedance is a whole different question than which sounds better when all you are changing is series/parallel.

The bigger question to me is why put all those in two cabinets when putting them in four would be so much better? The improvement you'll hear between how they are wired is nothing compared to how much better the same drivers will perform in four cabinets vs two.