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Monster amps that are happy bridged to 4ohm?

HyKlas

HyKlas

Super Member
Looking to power a pair of heavy hitting 4ohm speakers. Want 1 amp for now then bridge it with a second one later down the line so it'd have to not break a sweat running a bridged 4ohm load. What I'm trying to get with the pair is roughly 750-1000w each when bridged. No pro stuff and I'd really prefer silver faced with meters. Maybe something like the MX-1000U but silver and analog meters. Anything come to mind? Thanks in advance. I've been doing a lot of looking and haven't found "the one".
 
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No meters.......and black....Citation 7.1........bridges to 2x450 watts......over 100 amps pr channel......it'll make a barn-door sing and fly! GOOD sound quality too!
 
Crown Macrotech 5002VZ can do Bridged, 4875WRMS into 4Ω with 0.05% THD.......

They are one hell of an amplifier.......:thmbsp:
 
Citation won't bridge at 4ohms in to one channel.

The crown is a pro amp, no meters, and about 4x too much power.

Who knows, maybe I'll have to get something ugly like that and just hide it away so I don't have to look at it. Rather not though..
 
Not trying to rain on your parade, but when driving low impedence loads, bridging an amp is just asking for trouble, unless is it is specifically designed to run low impedence loads in bridged mode... which generally means a pro amp.

Most home stereo amps are comfortable with 8 and 4 ohm loads, but bridging them reduces their ability to effectively drive a 4 ohm load.

Lower impedence loads demand more current, so in many cases, you are better off with a lower rated (at 8 ohms) wattage amp, with a high current design that has power ratings that double or nearly double into 4 ohms and again into 2 ohms.

If your speakers offer a bi-amping/bi-wiring option, I would bi-amp them with two stereo amps, running in stereo... you can go vertical (one amp on each speaker, one channel for highs, one for lows) or horizontal (one amp for left and right lows, and one amp for left and right highs).

My favorite example of current vs total rated wattage is with my Infinity Kappa 9's... bi-amped with two Carver M 1.5t amps running in stereo (350 wpc each) went into protect at less than 30%... they are totally stable on a pair of Aragon 4004's (200 wpc each)... driven to oblivion...

When driving low impedence loads, current/power supply capacity becomes far more important than the touted 8 ohm wattage ratings... do a little research and review Ohm's Law...
 
When you bridge an amp. it sees the speaker load as half it's nominal impedance.

IOW, a bridged amp will see your four ohm speakers as a two ohm load.
 
Seems finding an amp that'll run at the 4ohm bridged is fairly tough. Bi-amping is probably my only option. Or at least it'd open some doors anyway. Why I brought up the MX-1000 is that it's stable to 1ohm stereo so driving the 4ohm mono wouldn't be an issue. And I knew the PC5002M would come up. That's a bit of a pipe dream though. ;)
 
Markw said:
When you bridge an amp. it sees the speaker load as half it's nominal impedance.

IOW, a bridged amp will see your four ohm speakers as a two ohm load.
Click to expand...

Are we talking about two 4-ohm speakers connected to a pair of bridged
mono amps, or a single 4-ohm speaker connected to a pair of
bridged mono amps? I understood it was the latter. I would say in that
case each amplifier is working as if loaded with 8 ohms, not 2 ohms.
 
electroking said:
Are we talking about two 4-ohm speakers connected to a pair of bridged
mono amps, or a single 4-ohm speaker connected to a pair of
bridged mono amps? I understood it was the latter. I would say in that
case each amplifier is working as if loaded with 8 ohms, not 2 ohms.
Click to expand...

Mark is correct... when you bridge the amp, it sees the single speaker as half the rated impedence... that is why most amps that are rated into 8 and 4 ohm stereo operation are only rated into 8 ohms for bridged mono operation. Pro amps can generally be bridged lower, but they are designed for that application.
 
HyKlas said:
Seems finding an amp that'll run at the 4ohm bridged is fairly tough. Bi-amping is probably my only option. Or at least it'd open some doors anyway. Why I brought up the MX-1000 is that it's stable to 1ohm stereo so driving the 4ohm mono wouldn't be an issue. And I knew the PC5002M would come up. That's a bit of a pipe dream though. ;)
Click to expand...

I have Krell amps that double down in power from their 8 ohm rating with each halving of impedence... clear down to 1 ohm... so my 250 wpc amp actually runs out to 2000 wpc into a 1 ohm load... bridging is not an option due to the true dual mono design, but no reason to bridge. Bridging an amp is good for "normal" 8 ohm impedences, but gets tough on amps when the impedence is lower...
 
Find the Onkyo Grand Integra M-510 and forget this bridging nonsense into 4 ohms. ;)

http://www.thevintageknob.org/THEVAULT2/M510/M510.html

Able to output 2x 1,2kW at 1 Ohm, one might imagine this having been aimed at PA reinforcement for deaf audiences but, in fact, the circuit's engineering are very much fine-tuned and almost microscopic.
Click to expand...

m-510-h.jpg
 
Microscopic if you wish, but the best class B amplifier in the world is still only 78%
efficient, so an output of 1200 W means at least 340 W dissipated in the amplifier...

In my earlier comment I was confusing bridging with paralleling.
 
The Legacy Ohms will be hard to drive, terribly inefficient. Owned a pair of "F"s at ine time and they would toy with my Spec 2 unmercifully. Really wanted to get my hands on some Ohm "A"s but that never happened. Another critical factor regarding the older Ohms are damping factor. That was the Spec's biggest problem, with a damping factor of 50 it never really had control after the 100 watt marker was passed.
 
electroking said:
Are we talking about two 4-ohm speakers connected to a pair of bridged
mono amps, or a single 4-ohm speaker connected to a pair of
bridged mono amps? I understood it was the latter. I would say in that
case each amplifier is working as if loaded with 8 ohms, not 2 ohms.
Click to expand...
I'm talking one 4 ohm speaker connected to a bridged amp will be seen as a two ohm load by that bridged amp.
 
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