Quick amp and sub question

[MileHighWRX]

I have a sub that is rated at 500 rms and it has 2 4ohm voice coils the amp I am thinking about upgrading to is rated at 500 watts at 4 ohms, so my question is would I need to only hook it to one voice coil to stay at the 4 ohm load?

[wrxinfx]

i'm not an expert but others out there will correct me.

You can go 1 of 2 routes. Wire the two coils in parallel yielding a 2 ohm load.... or wire them in series which'll give it an 8 ohm load. Many installers here say do not run only 1 vc on a dual vc speaker. Something about not good or not efficient..(guys correct me if i'm wrong)...

If your amp is stable at 2 ohm in one channel(bridged mode).. then go the 2 ohm route for most efficiency. If your amp is not capable of doing this... run it in 8 ohm load to be safer. You can always buy another dvc 4ohm per coil sub and make it 4 ohms. Your amp will run cooler, but the speaker will not sound substantially loud, if you run it in 8 ohm load cause the amp will not deliver the best of its abilities at that load.

[MileHighWRX]

I only want the one 10 so I am trying to figure out how many ohms the amp is stable at.

[ej20fan]

I only want the one 10 so I am trying to figure out how many ohms the amp is stable at.

That depends on the amp. Class A/B (meaning most 2 channel amps) 4 Ohm mono. It'll turn your trunk into flambeau if you try a 2 Ohm mono load. Most D-class (almost all mono amps) can handle a much lower impedance, meaning that 2 Ohms is preferable. It has nothing to do with efficiency, but resistance. The lower the resistance, the more current passes/heat is generated. As a rule of thumb, Class A/B amps always sound better than Mono amps. There are exceptions, of course, but those are few and far between.