Astroboy Posted March 14, 2002 Share Posted March 14, 2002 Be Gentle... new at this... Pieced together a system for first time. Wound up with Hafler DH-120 amp (60W/ch @ 8ohms)/ Audionics BT2 preamp / Rotel RCD 950 CD player / Klipsch RF 3 II speakers. Everything used but the Rotel and the Klipsch. Bought another Hafler DH-120 (used) and I'd like to strap the system in mono. I don't know how to wire it though. Guess: 1) Run second set of outputs from preamp to other amp. 2) Run second set of speaker cables from 2nd amp to bottom posts of RF3IIs (same as top ones... red to red / black to black etc). 3) Flip the "Bridged Mono" switches on both amps. Before I attempt this intuitive set-up, I'd like to verify it before I blow everything that I've just bought. Read a lot of posts on this BB, and it looks like I've come to the right place for advice. Thanks in advance! ------------------ Wayneman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Garrison Posted March 14, 2002 Share Posted March 14, 2002 First, I'm not familiar with the DH-120, so I'm basing this on the assumption that it works pretty much the same way most other amps work that have a "bridged mono / stereo" switch. When you flip the switch to mono, only one of the input jacks is "active". Let's assume it's the left channel jack (you need to check the manual to find out which one your amp uses.) What's happening is that the amp is sending the same signal to both the left and right channel circuits, with the right channel signal being the "inverse" of the left channel signal - when the left channel is at the maximum positive swing, the right channel is at the maximum negative swing. You connect a speaker to the bridged amp by connecting the positive speaker post to the LEFT CHANNEL POSITIVE post on the amp, and the negative speaker post to the RIGHT CHANNEL POSITIVE of the amp. You will have one speaker cable going from each amp to each speaker, with one "leg" of the cable connected to the amp's left channel + and the other leg connected to the amp's right channel +. You will not have anything connected to the negative, or black, speaker posts on the amplifier. In this mode, you need to amps, one of which is dedicated to driving the left speaker and the other to the right speaker. Note that bi-wiring (running two sets of cables to the same speaker, one set connected to the lower set of binding posts and the other to the upper set of binding posts) has nothing whatsoever to do with running the amps in bridged mono mode. I'm not quite sure from your description what you were thinking of doing, but it sounds as though you might have been attempting what's known as "horizontal" bi-amping. In this mode, you have one amp driving the bass section of two bi-wire compatible speakers by connecting the lower set of binding posts on the speakers to one amp (just like hooking up any normal speakers, left speaker to amp left channel and right speaker to amp right channel) and then you have the other amp driving the top section of the two speakers. In this configuration, both amps are running in STEREO mode, NOT in bridged mono mode. I hope you can follow this... if you are not SURE you understand how the amp is working when you flip that switch, DON'T CONNECT IT TO THE SPEAKERS AND TRY TO PLAY ANYTHING UNTIL YOU'RE SURE YOU'VE SET IT UP RIGHT!!!! You're likely to either let all of the smoke out of the amp, in which case it won't work anymore , or you could fry your speakers. Ray ------------------ Music is art Audio is engineering Ray's Music System Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.