Ok, I have been into car stereo equipment now for almost 10 years. Funny how I still do not understand this. My question is:

If I have one 8 ohm sub, and a 2 channel amp, if I run it bridged, will it make it 4 ohm, or does it only drop ohm's when multiple subs are hooked up.

Also, if I have 2 subs bridged on a 2 channel amp, if the amp says 400X1 bridged, would it make it 400X2 or would it be 200X2.

Oh yeah, and one more thing, how do you know if you are running in mono or stereo. Is mono say like all the subs are running say off the right channel. And does stereo just mean that you have subs hooked to a right and a left channel??

Ok, I have been into car stereo equipment now for almost 10 years. Funny how I still do not understand this. My question is:

If I have one 8 ohm sub, and a 2 channel amp, if I run it bridged, will it make it 4 ohm, or does it only drop ohm's when multiple subs are hooked up.The amp will see 8 ohms on its bridged channel. The way you change what the amp "see's" is by wiring mulitple coils in parallel/ series.

Also, if I have 2 subs bridged on a 2 channel amp, if the amp says 400X1 bridged, would it make it 400X2 or would it be 200X2.The amp will produce 400w on its bridged channel and the power will be divided by the number of subs you have on the channel, in this case 200w to each sub.

Oh yeah, and one more thing, how do you know if you are running in mono or stereo. Is mono say like all the subs are running say off the right channel. And does stereo just mean that you have subs hooked to a right and a left channel??Stereo is utilizing both the right and left channels, if you used the balance and had 2 subs the bass would move right and left. Mono is generally utilizing a mixed signal from both, moving the balance wont affect the subs at all. Some headunits have a mono sub rca out channel and others have a stereo. Alot of sub amps these days will take the stereo input and make it mono on its output, typical of most class D amps.

Hope this helps.

Also on most class D amps the way you would run in bridged mode (which i.e. is also mono is that you would hook up the subs + to one channel (if memory serves me correct this is usally the left + ) and the negative would go right - thus giving a bridged mono output. For the correct hook up consult the amp manual or the companies website so you don't smoke anything

Laterz G

just to clarify and possibly make things easier for you, is your sub a svc (single voice coil) 8 ohm or dvc (dual vc) 4 ohm? If its a dvc 4 ohm you could wire the vc's in parallel for a final load of 2 ohms which would not work off a bridged mulitchannel amp but could be achieved with a 5 ch amp with a sub channel or a mono sub amp. Then oyu could always wire them in series for an 8 ohm load which would be run by a 2 ch amp bridged.

They are old scool, so they are only svc. If I would have had a little more money to work with, I would have gone for the dvc.

Ok, so say an amp rates at 600 X 1 bridged at 2 ohm. What if I run it bridged at 4 ohm, is there any type of formula to figure out what it would be running at??

Ok, so say an amp rates at 600 X 1 bridged at 2 ohm. What if I run it bridged at 4 ohm, is there any type of formula to figure out what it would be running at??
Not really, refer to the manufacturer's specs. for this type of situation. It will usually be "about" half the power though. Around 300-400w would be a good guess.