TrueBlue91RS

I am currently waging on odd debate that I don't have all the answers to: Is it possible to bridge a deck amp (2 channels instead of four) without taking it apart and doing some serious modifications? A friend of mine asked me and I told him that I didn't think so and that I'd never heard of that even being attempted. However, he said that he's heard stories of how "some people" have successfully created a bridge externally(?!?) using just the wiring. The only thing that I can think of them doing to achieve this is wiring all four channels to one pair of speakers, and that's not an incredibly good idea. Is there something I'm missing, or is this just some kind of car audio myth? He seems pretty convinced...

Stoopalini

What your friend is talking about, is bridging the right channels together, and the left channels together.

You would take the front right + and the rear right neg and hook them to the speaker. Then take the front right -, the rear right +, and hook them together.

I would NOT RECOMMEND THIS because you will most likely blow your deck ..... eventaully.
Bridging internal amps will generate a lot of heat within your head unit. If the amps can even handle the bridge, chances are the other components won't be able to handle the increased temp.

Thomas.

TrueBlue91RS

Yeah, that was the "not incredibly good idea" that I was trying to tell him about, but he was having trouble explaining the technical side of what he was talking about so I wasn't even sure that that was what he meant. So you say it might not occur right away? Maybe that's why he thought that it worked: because the deck hasn't blown YET. That's really playing with fire...

88Vette

bridging any deck is a bad idea. First of all anything goes wrong with the deck and any manufacturer will not warranty it. Also the pathetic amplifiers inside a head unit weren't dsesigned to play anything but a single 4+ ohm speaker. Now the fact that is still plays after you bridge it doesn't mean that it is producing more power. I'd be willing to bet that power output has actaully dropped by 40 is percent.

CAMp3RO

bad bad bad idea. not to sound mean or anything. head units are not designed to handle that kinda work. bridge channels and stereo go BOOM. no more music.

SSC

Yes possible as stated by Stoop.
Will it hurt anything, Not Likely!
I only had two door speakers factory cheapo in my bronco when I replaced the factory radio "no tape" to a tape deck the instructions stated for 2 speaker use right F+ with RR+ RF- with RR- reverse for L.
The booklet sted that this will give the speakers a whoping 16 watts or somthing of power. Yes it sounded much fuller briged like this than 1 set per speaker.
16 watts, heh.
SSC

Floor It

Actually on the high end new pioneers, it give you directions how to bridge the rear channels into a single channel for a smaller sub. But after that you have to change a feature on the deck. Im guessing thats so it doesnt blow and it says in the book that you dont actually gain all that much power. extra 20 watts or something.

88Vette

Granted on the new pioneer decks the amp is designed to play a sub of the rear channels. But on any other deck that is not made to specifically do this it is a bad idea. i have ruined one of my friends alpine head units and have had more than one customer come into my shop after doing this, wondering why their deck doesn't work anymore. Also an amplifier will always sound better when it isn't working as hard ie. not bridged. The electrical components inside amplifiers are designs to put out a specific amount of power, and regardless what you do in terms of wiring or gain controls they have a maximun that they can create. After that point they will send a square sine wave to the speakers aka. clipping. It is a matter of headroom. I don't like to load down amplifiers at my shop unless the amplifier was meant to play at low loads, ie a low current amplifier.

TrueBlue91RS

It looks like he's going to give it a try anyways, despite my warnings about what you guys have said. He's pretty stubborn. Oh well, I'll let everyone know if he ends up blowing his deck or not. Another question, though: if you are only running one set of speakers off of a four channel deck amp, would those speakers be getting more power just because the power is available?