Will using my 5 channel as a 4 channel wreck channel 5?

[de hero]

I was planning on using a second 5 channel amp in my car (An older Hifonics Zeus z700) to allow me to go 3 way front active. I would have bridged channels 1 and 2 as well as channel 3 and 4 to put 110 RMS a side to my mid bass speakers.

But my friend who does installs said that there is a very high likelyhood that this course of action will result in the unused subwoofer channel (channel 5) eventually "dying".

He explained that there are no warning signs but "whenever" you attempt to put the amp back into 5 channel use the sub woofer channel will not function. Qualifying his statement somewhat by saying that it could take three months or so for the damage to be done.

Can anyone confirm if there is a logical reason for this and if so can I do anything to prevent it?

Thanks.

[I Am An Idiot]

That will not damage the amplifier.

[jol50]

I've never heard of that one. If you have no speaker connected, then no current flows through the outputs. I can't see how that would damage anything. I've had sub amps in cars where I took the box out to travel and I didn't unhook anything, so the amp was on because I never shut the radio off. Most 5th ch are basically another amp internally, because they usually have higher voltage than the other channels so they must have their own power supply. Some newer ones are class D in the sub section like my kicker. I ran it not using the 4ch part for a while and it worked ok, but it did get some strange feedback noise between tracks from the CD player while I did. But it was minor and eventually I got the other stuff installed and hooked up the 4ch then it went away.

[tsmith1315]

Add one more to the consensus -it won't cause any problems.

[ppia600]

Zero problems

[de hero]

So we are unanimous then!! Thanks everyone..