Messing around with amps

polk500

So for the last couple of days I was thinking about how I could tweak my humble rig. No funds as we just re-done the basement and I spent about $1000 on cables and a new remote harmony ultimate fantastic remote by the way.

So I have three amps a Parasound 1500a runs the mains B&K 5000 for surrounds and a pro Cerwin vega cv 900 for the centre ( just hooked up the cv 900 recently since I moved everything into the electrical room as the fan is quite loud.)

So I got to thinking the 1500 puts out 200 watts and the cv 900 puts out around the same so I figured I would run both in bridged mode and throw lots of power to the mains.

After 20 minutes setting it up ran the calibration sat down played Dire Straits your latest trick.

And was hugely disappointed the music was fine I guess and if I wasn't used to listening to it just with the 1500 in two channel. I might even think it was great but I just couldn't listen to it for more then a couple minutes and changed it back. Can't seem to put my finger on it I want to say harsh but that not it it was maybe some of the notes were to high pitched. I don't know anyway it wasn' pleasant.

Now of course I know this was no where perfect using two difference amps but I thought I would give it a try..

Will have too start looking for a second 1500.

Cheers
Roger

Lietuvis91

I have also experimented with bridging amp channels and bi amping and never had better quality sound that just running off one amp channel per speaker. There always seemed to be side effects from bridging that diminished the quality of sound, like you describe. Also others that i have discussed this with that have tried this seem to get similar results and so it seems the consensus is to buy a bigger amp as opposed to bridging a smaller one.

heiney9

Bridging a stereo amp will in MANY cases result in poorer sound.

H9

tonyb

Why do you need a second amp ? The 1500 seems to do just fine as is, and with the B&K handling the surrounds, that's more than capable with what your running.

polk500

Thanks for the replies folks.

Had to try it to hear what it sounds like. And it sucked big time.

Now I'm thinking along the lines of a parasound pre-amp an older one to match the 1500.