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quasi mono?

olds cool

olds cool

Member
hello everyone, i have a harman kardon hk 825 pre amp and 2 hk 870 amps (yes they are black!) with paradigm 9se speakers. i have heard that running one amp per speaker sounds even better! can anyone out there please explain to a dumbass how to hook this up properly??. thanks...
 
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I am not familiar with those amps. Are the two 870 amps mono or stereo? If they are stereo (meaning left & right inputs & outputs), they will have to be bridged, (if they are bridge capable) meaning combining the two speaker outputs, into one channel to drive one speaker only per amplifier.
 
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the hk 870 amp is stereo. it ran from 1983 to about 1988. i got mine in 1987 with the hk 825 pre amp. i only recently got a second amp after hearing about other people hooking them up this way. do you split one rca from the pre amp for left into left and right input on one amp, and the same with the right for the other amp and then one speaker positive-positive and neg-neg on one amp. thats how i think it happens but i want to be sure....i have heard it called quasi mono and yes it would be a good user name!!!!!
 
olds cool said:
the hk 870 amp is stereo. it ran from 1983 to about 1988. i got mine in 1987 with the hk 825 pre amp. i only recently got a second amp after hearing about other people hooking them up this way. do you split one rca from the pre amp for left into left and right input on one amp, and the same with the right for the other amp and then one speaker positive-positive and neg-neg on one amp. thats how i think it happens but i want to be sure....i have heard it called quasi mono and yes it would be a good user name!!!!!
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The process you seem to be trying to describe is called "bridging" but there's a bit more to it than that. First off, make sure your amp can be set up for bridging.
 
I saw some lame reference to "quasi-mono" connection of these amps on another website, but there wasn't enough detail to make heads or tails out of what was going on.

Personally, I wouldn't do it without a more clear explaination and understanding of what is taking place. Arbitrarily cross connecting speaker outputs is just asking to release the magic smoke.
 
i saw the same lame reference on another site, i have heard of it being done before too with the hk870. i wont do it if i cant find out for sure though, i like the sound of my system and dont want to release the magic smoke!!
 
just for laughs i sent an e mail to harman kardon tech support and asked if the hk870 was bridgable... no answer yet!!! is there anyone else out there with hk gear that has bridged?? should i give up and store one amp away?
 
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