Expert: Cleggsan - 9/18/2008

Question
Hey, just a quick question because i don't know very much about car stereo systems. i have 2 6x9 speakers 250 watt each and i want to get a 10' sub around 500 watts... i was wondering if i bought a 4 channel 1000 watt amp could i bridge one channel and put the other two channels on the 6x9s. Thanks

Answer
You could if the amp has bridgeable feature. Unfortunately most quad channel amps don't have bridging.  But, this is not a good idea.  Why? Because the the sub amps section draws lots of current and will effect through power supply crosstalk the performance of the stereo side of the amp.

Better solution is to use two separate amps; a stereo amp to drive the ovals and a mono amp to drive the subwoofer.

Other concern is impedance matching; this is more important than the power ratings of the speakers.  Advertised power ratings on speakers is not very useful.  You can pretty much ignore them.  The best thing to do is make sure the impedance of the voice coils are matched to the specifications of the amp.  And, watch out for dual voice coil subs; most of them come in either single or dual coils and you must connect them in either series or parallel.

Hope this helps you get it going.

C