Narco944

Bought an Infinity 1062W sub that I'm gonna run off my Zed Leviathan 6 channel amp. It's got 2 sets of + and - terminals. I've never seen that before on a sub. I know nothing about ohms and all that. I'm waiting until my sub box comes from Double D Mods and then I will hook the sub up with the rest of the system. I just want to make sure I wire it up correctly and don't screw anything up. Can someone help?

markcz

Check out lesson 58 HERE

Without knowing the exact specs of your amp, I'd recommend using separate amp channels for each set of sub terminals. If you connect the sub in serial you'd have 8ohms, and in parallel 2ohms, neither of which is ideal for a bridged amp.

WAwatchnut

The 1062w (per Infinity's site) is a dual voice coil, 2 or 8 ohm subwoofer. That would imply (couldn't open the online owners manual to verify) that it's a dual voice coil subwoofer, with each voice coil having a 4 ohm resistance.

There are many opinions about this online but you effectively have a 2 ohm or 8 ohm speaker, depending on how you wire it. I'm going to assume you want to use two of the Leviathan's channels to run the subwoofer. You would want to run the woofer in series, so that it presents an 8 ohm load to the two amplifier channels bridged.

Follow the instructions for bridging two of the amplifiers channels, so that you have one set of outputs (1 positive and 1 negative wire).

The positive lead from the amp will go to one of the positive inputs on the subwoofer (doesn't matter which one).

The negative lead from the amp will go to the negative input on the subwoofer opposite from the positive input you've already connected.

A jumper wire needs to be connected from the unused negative to the unused positive on the subwoofer.

Although technically it doesn't really work this way, think of the power flowing out from the amp via the positive wire - it goes into one of the voice coils through the positive input. The power then flows through the voice coil, out the negative lead. The power flows from the negative, through the jumper, to the positive of the other voice coil. Then it flows out the negative of that voice coil, to the negative of the amp, completing the circuit. Because it flows through one voice coil, then through the other, the resistance is the sum of the two voice coils (4+4 = 8 ohms).

One caution - the Leviathan will put out 380w RMS to the subwoofer, which is designed to handle 275w. As long as you turn the gain down on the amp so it's not putting out full power, you should be okay. It would be better to go with a beefier subwoofer, but since you have it already, just take the proper precautions.

Nice amp BTW!

WAwatchnut

Mark - Why do you say 8ohms isn't ideal for a bridged amp? It's effectively running the amp at the "normal" load of 4ohms, allowing it to hit stated power, and not stressing the amp. Running a bridged amp at 4 ohms allows the amp to produce more power (sort of), but can put more stress on the amp. Leviathans (and other current Zed amps) are notorious for having thermal issues when run at lower impedances, so I'd always default to running at 8 ohms bridged, unless the power was more important than longevity.

Just want to know your thoughts - you have more current experience than I do, so maybe I'm too old school.

markcz

I was thinking that at 8ohms it would cut the rated output of the amp down too much, but that was before looking up the specs. Now that I've done the proper research, that amp has much more power than I was expecting. 190x6 is a monster. Looks like 2 amp channels bridged to sub at serial 8ohms is the way to go, good call.

Narco944

Joe, thanks for the detailed response! You explained it in a way that even a car audio idiot like me can understand. I bought this amp new a few years ago from a forum member (Tahoe forum) who owned a car audio shop. He swore to me that Zed make quality stuff and this amp is a monster. I had never heard of Zed, most ppl haven't it seems. Is it a good amp in your opinion Joe and Mark?

Narco944

A few pics

Narco944

So joe if I understand you I'll run speaker wire from 5+ to positive post on sub and another wire from 6- to negative post on opposite side of sub. Jumper wire from the unused + and - of the sub and turn my gain down? Sound correct?

pentavolvo

Correct

markcz

Download a 50 Hz test tone off the net and play it on a repeating loop. Start with the amp gain down all the way, turn radio volume up to 75%, slowly turn amp gain up until you get distortion (sound changes from smooth rumble to buzzing fart sound, it will be obvious). Note that position on the gain **** as the MAX you can turn it up to, then turn it back down. Get the rest of the channels set properly, then blend sub in (turn up gain) to make it sound good, but make sure you don't go over your previous max level. If sub can't keep up with components, turn sub to max level and adjust components down to sound good with sub at max.

WAwatchnut

sorry - been offline the last day.

Mark and Pentavolvo have it covered - correct on the wiring.

In short - The Leviathan is a beast -tons of power, great design, and overbuilt in many ways. Early versions may have some issues, but newer ones shouldn't have any problems if installed correctly. Stephen Mantz has designed some of the best amps in car audio's history.

Long version:

Zed audio's amps have a bit of a checkered history. The founder of Zed - Stephen Mantz - is a bit of a legend in car audio - having designed and built many of the best amps since the inception of high powered car audio, sold under other companies labels. (Harman Kardon Citation series, early Hifonics amps, Nakamichi's PA series, etc). Many had really, really high expectations for the first amps.

When they were released, the amps had really great specifications, as expected. But once people started installing them, many reports surfaced of amps having problems running at extreme loads - low impedance installations, while within specifications, were causing many amps to overheat, and in some cases, fail catastrophically.

Many amp companies have had issues with early production models, and its not uncommon to see problems when amps are run at 1 or 2 ohm loads, so it's hard to say for sure if there were really problems with the amp designs, user installation, or just ramp up issues. Zed did change the specs on some of their amps, so undoubtedly there were issues meeting spec in real world situations for some reason.

Some of the early Leviathans had issues with noise (high noise floor when the amp should be silent), and protection circuit problems (amp failed to turn on, only the logo lighting up on occasion). Those problems seem to have been solved with later releases of the amp (Current version is the Leviathan - III).

I'm jealous - I've been wanting to get one of the Zed amps for a while - but I have way too many amps sitting unused, and not enough room in any of my cars for any of the larger amps.

Narco944

Thanks! Glad to know it's a decent amp. How can I tell which Leviathan model I have?

WAwatchnut

Actually, I'm not sure...

I was looking through your pics, and the pics on Zed's site, and I didn't see any specific differences. Probably a quick call or email to Zed Audio would be your best bet.

There's probably a manufacturing date on the amp somewhere - anything older than 2-3 years should be a 1st model, but newer versions may be more difficult to identify.

Narco944

It's about 3-4 years old. Oh well. I sent you a PM by the way.