QuestionHey how u doin man, I just wanted to ask u about my subs and my amp. First of all I have to 10" punch subs in a pro box. They are dual and 4ohm. How do I bridge them to get the max power out of the 3/4 channel 600watt sony xplode?
AnswerDoing pretty well, thanx for asking!
ok.. I hope you realise that this amp is only 'rated' at 600 watts for PEAK power to get ppl to buy it or it would be rated at RMS (average/continuous output).
This is a tell-tale sign of a poorly built amp. Regardless of the exact model number, I can only find limited specs on it. This is bad news all around.
To quote Sony:
'Xplod 4/3 Channel 600-watt Amplifier'
60w X 4 Rms Into 4 Ohms
60w X 2 + 150w X 1 Rms Into 4 Ohms
The sites do not specify if it can run in 'twin 150 watt bridged modes' at once but I am sure many novices will attempt this.
Against my better judgement, I will tell you how I would try to approach this.
That being the case, you could try running each speakers' coils in parallel which will give you two speakers at 2 ohms each.
PARALLEL for one bridged side:
Run the positive from one bridged output of the Front amp channels to the positive lead of one of the coils.
Run a wire from that coils' negative lead to the other coils' positive lead.
Run the other negative back to the amp on the bridged channels.
Repeat this procedure for the REAR channels' bridged outputs for the other speaker.
Then you can bridge the two front and the two rear channels on the amp for 60 watts RMS x2 (about 120-150 watts for each pair of combined coils).
This is not a lot of power, but since the amp is rated to run two ohms in bridged mode, this is about all you can do with it.
**Using a multi channel amp to just run subs is a lot of work for the limited result you will get. I am not saying it cannot work, I am just pointing out that this is the last method I would recommend.
I will also WARN you that you should be VERY careful when setting the amp level controls for high current (low impedance) installs! Setting them just a tad too high will very likely turn it into a paperweight (at best). Remember, you are daisey-chaining a poor amp to (or possibly beyond) its' intended limits AND you will not get one extra watt by having the levels too high. You will only lose headroom, sustainability and clarirty at high volumes!!! Trust me.
The best resolve would be to get a good 2 channel 125x2 watt RMS amp like an Autotek (for instance) that safely runs a 4 ohm MONO load.
Then you could wire each speakers' coils in Series (making 8 ohms) then wire them to the two output leads in Parallel for a 4 ohm mono load. This would give you about 350 watts in mono (or about 175 watts RMS for each speaker).
350 watts rms 139.00
http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=18146
or
320 watt rms 199.00
http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=18152
Do not be fooled by the wattage rating, these amps will drive nails into concrete.
here are more specs and models including mono amps.
http://www.maxxsonics.com/autotek/ss_amps_details.html
200.00 will buy this one that will own ya hard for years to come. # 700-WATT RMS X 1 @ 2 OHMS (which you can wire your speakers for)
http://cgi.ebay.com/AUTOTEK-SS1000-1D-A-B-CLASS-1-CHANNEL-AMPLIFIER_W0QQitemZ230...
JM
