Behringer A500... bridged or no?

[Scott Andrew]

So I am currently running am old Pioneer 1014 in my Home Theater set-up with B&W DM-604 towers. I just bought 2 A500's for the towers, so would it be better to run each amp bridged to each 3 way tower OR run each amp in stereo with each channel running the highs vs. lows on each tower? Sorry, I don't know much about how this all affects impedance and power.

Thanks

 

[TLS Guy]

So I am currently running am old Pioneer 1014 in my Home Theater set-up with B&W DM-604 towers. I just bought 2 A500's for the towers, so would it be better to run each amp bridged to each 3 way tower OR run each amp in stereo with each channel running the highs vs. lows on each tower? Sorry, I don't know much about how this all affects impedance and power.

Thanks

I would not bridge.

Honestly, I would return one amp. Two amps will buy you nothing of significance. Passive biamping really adds nothing to a speaker. Active biamping is the way to go, but it means designing a speaker from the ground up.

 

[Scott Andrew]

So there would be no benefit to running one amp on each tower vs. running one amp to both towers?

 

[TLS Guy]

So there would be no benefit to running one amp on each tower vs. running one amp to both towers?

No there would not.b

 

[mike c]

b&w 604's iirc would dip to 3 ohms ... don't bridge.

use all 4 channels for your passive bi-amping.

 

[Scott Andrew]

ok... I was "advised" before that one A500 probably wouldn't be enough for the two DM604's and I would probably want to use 2...

So my plans were to run one A500 amp on each DM604 tower, and then let the Pioneer 1014 run my rears (B&W DM602 S3's) and my centre (B&W LCR600 S3). So if I do run 1 amp to 1 tower my best option is to passively bi-amp as the speakers cant handle the load that the amp would output when it's bridged? (in regards to ohms the specs say they need a minimum of 3 ohms?)

I don't actually understand why more power isn't better? The speakers can handle up to 200 watts and they are currently getting a max of 110 from the pioneer... but the whole system doesn't seem to have enough punch for me. So by me adding 1 A500 the speakers would then only be getting 125 watts at 8 ohms vs. the 110 from the Pioneer... not much of a difference. So wouldn't it be better to add 2 of them? If I do use them bridged what load (ohm) would they output?

Sorry, as I said before... I don't completely understand all of this

 

[mike c]

ok... I was "advised" before that one A500 probably wouldn't be enough for the two DM604's and I would probably want to use 2...

So my plans were to run one A500 amp on each DM604 tower, and then let the Pioneer 1014 run my rears (B&W DM602 S3's) and my centre (B&W LCR600 S3). So if I do run 1 amp to 1 tower my best option is to passively bi-amp as the speakers cant handle the load that the amp would output when it's bridged? (in regards to ohms the specs say they need a minimum of 3 ohms?)

I don't actually understand why more power isn't better? The speakers can handle up to 200 watts and they are currently getting a max of 110 from the pioneer... but the whole system doesn't seem to have enough punch for me. So by me adding 1 A500 the speakers would then only be getting 125 watts at 8 ohms vs. the 110 from the Pioneer... not much of a difference. So wouldn't it be better to add 2 of them passively bi-amped and then overall each speaker is getting up to 250 watts?

Sorry, as I said before... I don't completely understand all of this

it's not about your speaker NOT handling the power.
it's about the amps NOT handling the load when bridged. use stereo mode.
bridged amps see twice the impedance, it will run no problem, but your amps will run a lot hotter than necessary (and thus shorten it's life)

you can use a channel for each of the 604's (if you have a subwoofer, that's way more than enough power) and use the other amp for the surrounds would be my advice.

again, use stereo, don't bridge.

for reference, i've had FOUR of the A500's.

 

[Scott Andrew]

OK, thanks for the advice guys. I think I will go with the last option and use one amp for the towers (the HSU VTF-3 will take care of anything below 80hz) and then one amp for the surrounds... although my center is definitely going to feel left out but I would assume that the Pioneer's amp will do perfectly fine when it only has to run the center.

Thanks again

 

[highfigh]

it's not about your speaker NOT handling the power.
it's about the amps NOT handling the load when bridged. use stereo mode.
bridged amps see twice the impedance, it will run no problem, but your amps will run a lot hotter than necessary (and thus shorten it's life)

you can use a channel for each of the 604's (if you have a subwoofer, that's way more than enough power) and use the other amp for the surrounds would be my advice.

again, use stereo, don't bridge.

for reference, i've had FOUR of the A500's.

Bridged amps effectively see HALF of the actual impedance, not double.

 

[highfigh]

So I am currently running am old Pioneer 1014 in my Home Theater set-up with B&W DM-604 towers. I just bought 2 A500's for the towers, so would it be better to run each amp bridged to each 3 way tower OR run each amp in stereo with each channel running the highs vs. lows on each tower? Sorry, I don't know much about how this all affects impedance and power.

Thanks

If the speakers dip to 3 Ohms and the amp doesn't want to see that, it may run hot and could be damaged. If the amp has a protection circuit that's triggered by excessive current, it will frequently cause intermittent audio at high power levels.

Amplifiers, speakers and any other audio/video equipment should be chosen by the application and that requires making a list of requirements. High SPL? Sensitive speakers and high power are needed and this isn't negotiable. Passive bi-amping adds 3dB to the output, but only when the maximum power levels are reached. If you're listening at 90dB, it won't do anything but reduce the average power output of each amp and that's not much of a benefit when the amp is putting out 1-2W. If you constantly listen at the maximum power capacity of the speakers, you'll not only go deaf in a hurry, you'll also annoy everyone near you.

The speakers were designed to handle a certain amount of power (hopefully). The reality is that the vast majority of people NEVER exceed this and can't play the music as loud as they think they want, for any length of time.

 

[KEW]

Bridged amps effectively see HALF of the actual impedance, not twice.

Scott,
I wanted to clarify that mike c. made a typo when he wrote twice instead of half.
The advice he gave is correct.

Edit: I see I was typing while High Figh was posting further explanation.