rvincerob1 Posted October 15, 2002 Share Posted October 15, 2002 I'm in the market for an Amp to power my Center channe(C7). I was wondering if all amps are bridgable? I don't want to spend too much money. Maybe a 100 watt 2 ch Amp bridged into 1. I have 1 Kenwood Basic M2A 220w/p/ch. I'm currently bidding on another one. So, i'd like to power my center with at least 200watts. As you can see I'm partial to Solid State Amps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobile homeless Posted October 16, 2002 Share Posted October 16, 2002 Ummmm... All amps are not bridgable and some dont even sound that great that are. I tend to think that stereo amps in bridged mode almost ALWAYS sound more grainy than monoblock designs. I think this is without fail unless it's something like the Monarchy Audio SM-70 that was originally designed to run as balanced monoblocks but can be run as a stereo amp through the RCA inputs. Would be ultra cool to get a TUBE monoblock just to run that center channel.... place it in the center and stare at the beast instead of a TV screen. Works for simple freaks like me. Actually, you just missed a perfect amp that went off yesterday. It was the B&K ST-202 that I recommended in a thread way back. Went for $225 or so and was a virtual STEAL. I dont know why any of your SS hounds didnt jump on that amp. It really is a great amp. Trying to remember if it is bridgable, come to think of it. Hmmmmm...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deang Posted October 17, 2002 Share Posted October 17, 2002 A friend and myself played with the bridging feature of his old Adcom 555 II's about a half year ago. In bridged mode, they were barely listenable. Mark, who generally can't hear much difference between anything -- agreed that it sounded horrendous. Not only was it grainy as hell -- but it also sounded as if someone had knocked 10 db off of the bass, and then cranked a treble control all the way over. It was interesting to say the least. Bridging is bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobile homeless Posted October 17, 2002 Share Posted October 17, 2002 To be honest, it sounds as if you had the connections wrong here. I dont think it should sound quite as off as you experienced but I agree with your 100% regarding the quality of the sound, which is much worse than the amp in stereo mode. I too tried this in my own home due to several I know reporting how GREAT their monoblocked GFA-555 amps sounded into a pair of Vandersteen 2Ci speakers. I can only report it was a major disappointment sonically speaking. All subtle cues were gone and the amps did not sound near as refined, taking on a slightly closed in trait. The treble on the GFA-555 was already a slight problem and when monoblocked, it worsened in other ways. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deang Posted October 17, 2002 Share Posted October 17, 2002 The amps were hooked up correctly. It sounded so bad we checked the phasing twice - because I myself kept thinking it sounded worse than it should. I'm sure you know by now that I have a propensity towards embellishment. It was pretty awful though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arco Posted October 17, 2002 Share Posted October 17, 2002 There's another thing, one should consider when bridging amps, i.e. that the bridged amp becomes very dependent on the impedance curve of the loudspeaker. For most bridged amps, each time the impedance goes lower than 8 ohms the sound quality gets a serious kick! Too bad, as there are very few speakers out there (yes, even 8 Ohm ones...) that do not dip lower than that in some parts of the spectrum. Even if they dip down to 6 Ohm, they are still considered - by general acceptance - as 8 Ohm speakers. So, you might well quadruple the per-channel power of a stereo amp if you bridge it, but at a price! I would personally opt for a real monoblock amp, specially built to drive HT channels. Marantz makes such monoblocks. Cheap and cheerful (especially if you find a used one...) and not bad at all sonically speaking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Garrison Posted October 17, 2002 Share Posted October 17, 2002 Dean, Mobile, I had the exact same experience with my 555's. 1987, I had a pair of the original series B&W 801f. Without wasting a lot of keystrokes, the only thing I found that could drive them to any reasonably dynamic level (that I could afford, anyway) was a pair of GFA-555. Using one by itself in stereo mode sounded, well, really good. Bridged into mono, the high end hardened up a LOT, and they didn't sound anywhere near as, uh, good. Wasn't easy to pinpoint - bass was still good, midrange was still good, high end was a bit harsher, but not *THAT* bad, but the whole gestault was much worse in bridged mode. I always wondered if it wasn't something to do with the feedback loop - sounded sort of like higher levels of intermodulation distortion to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rvincerob1 Posted October 17, 2002 Author Share Posted October 17, 2002 I would like to Thank everyone for their advice and opinions. I believe I will go the Monoblock route. Again, Thanks for the valualble information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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