please explain bridged watts to me

[bigbassdave]

Hey guys I've seen a lot of talk about the Behringer A500 on here and I read the specs. 2 x 230 Watts into 4 Ohms or 500 Watts into 8 Ohms bridged. At the risk of sounding like a total newb here I'm not sure what that means. Does it mean you can take the two channel amp and run it to only one channel producing 500 watts at 8 ohms? If that is the case does that mean that you could run (without bridging) 250 watts x 2 into 8 ohms? My two front speakers are rated up to 250 watts and are 8 ohm units so if I could get a two channel amp around $180 that would run them to their max potential I would be dancing in the streets. Thanks

 

[highfihoney]

hi,you got it half right but not all the way,i'll explain,

bridging channel's is when you take both the left & right channel(stereo)& combine them to create one single channel(mono)hence the term "bridged mono".

by turning a 2 channel stereo amp into a one channel mono amp you increase the wattage but with that you are also doubling the ohmage in most case's & you double everything else too like distortion,also not all amplifier's are able to handle a 4 ohm load after being flipped over to run in bridged mono.

the only way you would be able to achieve the higher wattage your looking for in 8 ohm's would be to buy two of these amp's & bridge them both then run them as monoblock's (one to each speaker) or to buy a stereo amp that has the power your looking for in 8 ohm's.

you mentioned wanting to drive your speaker's to their full potential,in order to do this you will need a stereo amp that is capable of running 8 ohm load's with atleast 250 wpc but you will get alot better performance from an amplifier that has roughly 50 % more power than your speakers are rated for like maybee a 350 or 400 wpc amp.

 

[pearsall001]

Bigbassdave

I bought 2 A500 amps for that exact reason. To run each amp bridged mono for each speaker. My speakers are rated at 50-300 watts. Let me tell you this you won't regret having that much power - if there is such a thing!! My speakers sprang to life like I couldn't believe. For $360 you can't beat the performance. Why pay thousands for an amp & not get any better results IMO. The most expensive amp I tried was a $5000. 300X2 HEGEL amp. I'll keeep the A500's & pocket the difference, thank you very much. Pretty soon a third A500 will be purchased for my center. Try them out you have nothing to lose & a whole lot to gain!!!!

 

[bigbassdave]

Thanks guys that was a great description. Ok so there really is no cheap quick road to audio nirvana. should have figured.