Bridging Amp Question

geode

geode

F4 Phantom Seat Jockey
Subscriber
I was just wondering if there is a distinct advantage of using a two channel power amp versus a configurable amp that is bridged into two channels. I currently have a Citation 7.1 bridged into two channels. It is configurable into four, three, or two channels. These are discrete channels each with its own power supply. Just wondering if a two channel had any advantage for two channel stereo use. :scratch2:
 
Register to hide this ad
Well...bridging adds all the distortion and other nasties of both channels together into one and cuts the damping factor in half.

Whether or not any of that makes a real (aka audible) difference probably depends on indivdual circumstances.
 
Bridging just doubles the voltage swing to the load. It will play (a little) louder or give a little bit more headroom.

The downside to bridging is, each amp channel (2 in the bridge) will see exactly half of the load impedance. So if you have a 4 ohm speaker, each half of the bridge will 'see' 2 ohms. This is because each amp channel is playing the same thing, but one amp channel is inverted. When you put these complementary signals across a load, the middle of the load will be at 0volts, or virtual ground. ....Each amp channel will 'see' half of the load impedance. Loud and low impedance load together is not so good. It gets closer to the limits of SOA Safe Operating Area
 
Jon_Logan said:
Bridging just doubles the voltage swing to the load. It will play (a little) louder or give a little bit more headroom.

The downside to bridging is, each amp channel (2 in the bridge) will see exactly half of the load impedance. So if you have a 4 ohm speaker, each half of the bridge will 'see' 2 ohms. This is because each amp channel is playing the same thing, but one amp channel is inverted. When you put these complementary signals across a load, the middle of the load will be at 0volts, or virtual ground. ....Each amp channel will 'see' half of the load impedance. Loud and low impedance load together is not so good. It gets closer to the limits of SOA Safe Operating Area
Click to expand...

Thanks for the responses WHO and Jon. I like the amp and at 450 wpc it drives my JBL speakers to really high SPLs . I'm contemplating selling it and replacing it with a Parasound A21 or Emotiva XPA-2. My pre is a Parasound Halo P3. I'm just not sure either will perform equal or better than the Citation. The bad is that I have to sell the Citation before I can buy another amp.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom