damping factor/stereo/bridged

[richie00boy]

So given that a parallel load would kill the amplifier as well as demanding fat cables etc, bridged is the way forward.

[herndonb]

This was the heart of my question: my concern for the slight imbalance that has to exist between a left and a right channel of a stereo amplifier to a dual-coil (4 ohm per coil) woofer. So series the coils together to 8 ohms and run the amp in bridged mode to avoid this problem? Running it in stereo is not the best way right? I was trying to decided whether to punch one hole for speaker cable into my box or two holes for two cables...

[K-amps]

Originally posted by carpenter
If I recall correctly, there's a four fold increase in available wattage. That's assuming the power-supply is capable.

John

I would bridge as well...

- Running 2 coils each from a separate channel of the amp might induce currents to the adjecent channel of the amp. This is not as bothersome in a bridged set-up.

- If you are not running the above scenario; then you are not using the amp efficiently... again makes the case for bridged.

- Bridged amps will sound bad when they are not designed for hi current drives. Some manufacturers will use a higher value of BE resistor from driver to output thus allowing the driver to survive but starve the OP of current... this is when a bridge amp will sound bad. Also a hi-volt, low current PSU will make a bridge amp sound bad...

The KAV sounds decent bridged... just some of my experiences...

I prefer bridged (balanced) sound, to me it is less grainy... but then I run my set-up tri-amped...

[Svante]

Originally posted by herndonb

So my question is:
Is it better to run an amplifier bridged at 8 ohms for more damping factor and series two coils together (I'm guessing amplifier distortion goes up a little in bridged mode?) or run one coil on one channel and one coil on the other channel. Anybody hook up a sub this way? Will the tiny difference in output between two channels force the two coils to "fight" each other or something??
Thanks guys....

Given that the gains in the amplifiers are identical (which is a resonable enough assumption), the result will be identical in both configurations, even with respect to the effects of the damping factor.

There is however one little thing that talks in favor of the bridged mode: The two halves of the bridge are driven from the different supply rails, this should lessen the load on the supply capacitors slightly.

So, go for bridged, but don't expect any dramatic change against the other configuration.