[creed]

sometimes used to hear that people complaining their ICE does not sound as neutral/smooth as before after they bridged their front speaker...i just wondering was it due to the amplifier or something else...

currently i'm running 50watts to my tweeter while bridged at 220watts for my mid, there're voices that urges me to try running without bridge to the midbass to see whether it'll improve anything...

i know i know it does not take too long to try that, but since i'm busy, and i would like to see anyone here running their front speaker in bridging mode...and want to know whether bridged will sacrifice some of the music quality?

 

[npdang]

It shouldn't unless your amp is damaged...

 

[Charles]

npdang,
I've tried on a previous generic 4 channel amp that when bridged i do notice a loss in some high extension and detail....or prolly i do not possess golden ear

 

[creed]

i have a Vifa PL midbass which is at 89db, i have the chance to put them either 75watts each or 225watts each...but since i dun want to waste the unuse power, currently running 225watts each, i may try 75watts each to see whether there's differences.?.

 

[npdang]

I'm not much of an "amp" guy if you haven't noticed You won't find any amp reviews here even though I've been through quite a few.

I've never been able to hear any difference in sound quality between amps using a fully active setup, properly installed and tuned. Bridged, non-bridged, tube, class d, tripath, you name it. I've owned them all and they all sound more or less the same to me.

Now I have noticed a distinct difference in craftmanship, durability, and noise.

With a true 89db sensitivity in-car, 75 watts should be deafeningly loud. Of course if the driver is obstructed in anyway, or playing too far off-axis it may not be 89dbwm. Fwiw, in my doors 30watts or so is more than enough to drive my Seas Excel to frighteningly loud levels, and at 60-80hz to reach full excursion. I've seen many setups with 200-300+ watts per driver, but in reality using less than ~35 watts of measured power.

 

[alexcd]

amp power

npdang, I agree that most people while using "250W" amplifiers are using far less. In any installation there is some amount of noise and can be easily dealt with by decreasing the sensitivity of the amplifier. So even with peaks of 35V, a speaker may see less than 10V at any given time if the gain is set low. Any person using a true 200W for the speakers would be deaf.

 

[npdang]

Re: amp power

npdang, I agree that most people while using "250W" amplifiers are using far less. In any installation there is some amount of noise and can be easily dealt with by decreasing the sensitivity of the amplifier. So even with peaks of 35V, a speaker may see less than 10V at any given time if the gain is set low. Any person using a true 200W for the speakers would be deaf.

Definitely true! So many people have the gains set 1:1 or even lower, in an attempt to reduce noise and/or clipping of dynamic peaks without realizing that it severely limits their amp's continuous power output with most music.

 

[Casedot]

I remember reading somewhere ( I think it was on ECA) that when bridging an Arc1500XXK down to 1ohm severely lowers the damping factor. I dont know what that means, but it suggests it changes something. Then again, i alse read that damping facto means nothing and is a magic parameter.

Forgive my ignorance on the subject, but when an amp is brideged the power supplies are running in 2ohms (assuming normally the amp is rated at 4ohms), but then they are summed so the final load is 4 ohms. I would think that this would have an effect on the freq response due to impedanc curves and whatnot, but again, i have no idea if that is correct.

 

[Tirefryr]

Go to Butler Audio's website. They have some interesting reads on damping factors.

 

[Casedot]

that's funny, i was just on there checking out their amps....freakin' crazy stuff, but sooooo expensive. I thought you couldn't bridge a tube amp, but i guess i am wrong...

 

[Tirefryr]

I was actually going to buy a couple, but their customer service is just horrible and slow. Can't have that for the price you pay and the supposed quality high end gear. Zapco is getting my business.

 

[aaron]

so did I go overboard with an Xtant 301a (300 watt rms) for my Peerless xls 8? My logic was to allow for dynamic headroom, I remember Richard Clark saying that it is better to have too much power than too little. There is probably more to that statement then what I know though.
(I may not like the way he can come across at times but I do respect his opinion)

 

[Casedot]

yeah, having more available power is good. Set your gains correctly and you will be fine.

 

[npdang]

Nah you can never have too much power I just get a bit tired of people claiming they're putting "400 watts of continuous power" to their mids and how they were just dying for more.... when in actuality they've never even measured the power across their drivers. I always advocate measuring for yourself and finding out how much power you're actually using, rather than guessing. A 400 watt amp doesn't mean your speakers are seeing that full power on a continuous basis.

And unclipped dynamic peaks is always great, but then again can you really hear a clipped tone for a mere couple thousandths or so of a second?

 

[10K2HVN]

that's funny, i was just on there checking out their amps....freakin' crazy stuff, but sooooo expensive. I thought you couldn't bridge a tube amp, but i guess i am wrong...

theyre not full tube amps. theyre a new type of hybrid tube designs.

go ahead and give this page a read.. (click on picture - theyre 3 pages)

 

[Casedot]

From the site - "First spotted in my HE2003 San Francisco coverage driving the full-range 4-way Cabasse Karas towers with their tri-concentric cyclops eyes, I only absorbed at the time that the lone 300B triode was not just a predriver but somehow DC-coupled directly to the output devices to mix transistor muscle and valve velvet in a novel, zero global NFB hybrid architecture."

LOL, that got my head spinning. :shock: :shock: :?