Active vs. bridged

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

I'm going to possibly hook up my new TS-C720PRS comps on Tuesday. I'm debating on taking my rear speakers out all together and either bridging my amp or running the comp set actively. Which do you think would be the best way to do it? My amp is rated at 70 RMS x 4 at 4 ohms or 200 RMS x 2 at 4 ohms bridged. The speakers are "rated" to handle 50 RMS and 200 peak. I could also just leave my rears in and run them how my Focals are being ran now. Any suggestions?

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[FJF 10+ year member]

I'm going to possibly hook up my new TS-C720PRS comps on Tuesday. I'm debating on taking my rear speakers out all together and either bridging my amp or running the comp set actively. Which do you think would be the best way to do it? My amp is rated at 70 RMS x 4 at 4 ohms or 200 RMS x 2 at 4 ohms bridged. The speakers are "rated" to handle 50 RMS and 200 peak. I could also just leave my rears in and run them how my Focals are being ran now. Any suggestions?

Since no one responded...

1. Ditch the rears. There's no reason to have to them playing.

2. I'd suggest starting out with the amp bridged and the included x-overs, then tuning the system as it sits. Once you're happy with the sound and have a chance to get used to the system, try an active setup. This way you'll have a point of reference to work with. Good luck.

 

[bass_lover1 10+ year member]

Try both and see which sounds best to you?

The 800PRS is a nice head unit, a little quirky to work with for an active setup, but it offers a lot of features, such as:

Independent phase adjustments.

16 band L/R independent graphic EQ.

T/A for all 6 channels.

Listening position selection.

I do regret selling my 880, however, I hated the iPod function, and the pause and mute being buried into a menu.

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

Since no one responded...
1. Ditch the rears. There's no reason to have to them playing.

2. I'd suggest starting out with the amp bridged and the included x-overs, then tuning the system as it sits. Once you're happy with the sound and have a chance to get used to the system, try an active setup. This way you'll have a point of reference to work with. Good luck.

Thanks for the response. I think that's the way I'm going to go. I just got some RCA Y-cables today to do this.

Try both and see which sounds best to you?
The 800PRS is a nice head unit, a little quirky to work with for an active setup, but it offers a lot of features, such as:

Independent phase adjustments.

16 band L/R independent graphic EQ.

T/A for all 6 channels.

Listening position selection.

I do regret selling my 880, however, I hated the iPod function, and the pause and mute being buried into a menu.

I'm quite familiar with all the functions. I had the CD-IB100ii or whatever for the iPod and I hated it. I'm using an eBay adapter that hooks into the dock on the iPod and lets me control everything from my iPod instead of from the HU. I generally have a few CDs in the car too. There's really nothing like having the original CD for SQ.

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

Since no one responded...
1. Ditch the rears. There's no reason to have to them playing.

2. I'd suggest starting out with the amp bridged and the included x-overs, then tuning the system as it sits. Once you're happy with the sound and have a chance to get used to the system, try an active setup. This way you'll have a point of reference to work with. Good luck.

Do you think that feeding them close to 200 RMS would potentially be bad for them? I realize that most component sets don't "come alive" with the RMS rating the factory gives them, and most can handle much more than the factory rating. These look to be very "beefy" speakers so I'd figure they'll be able to handle a decent amount of power, just not at 25 Hz, obviously.

 

[FJF 10+ year member]

Do you think that feeding them close to 200 RMS would potentially be bad for them? I realize that most component sets don't "come alive" with the RMS rating the factory gives them, and most can handle much more than the factory rating. These look to be very "beefy" speakers so I'd figure they'll be able to handle a decent amount of power, just not at 25 Hz, obviously.

If you don't go silly with the volume knob, you won't have a problem. Typically, while playing music, the speakers see just a few watts of power. The extra juice makes for less compression on peaks, quicker, more vivid transients and dynamic swings.

 

[tez4life Premium Member]

Not to mention, you ultimately control the output from the speakers. You can set your gains on the amps so that they will see plenty of power, but never the full 200w if you so desire.

Just be sensible with the gains, and listen to the speakers for distortion and I think you would be fine. Im very much one for some additional headroom. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

If you don't go silly with the volume knob, you won't have a problem. Typically, while playing music, the speakers see just a few watts of power. The extra juice makes for less compression on peaks, quicker, more vivid transients and dynamic swings.

They're going to play loud. I know when to turn it down. If I'm not hearing any distortion, they should be good, correct? I'm probably not going to even get the gain up to 200 RMS. I'm planning on using my multi meter to set the gains to about 150-160 for them. I figure at that power, the amp will not be clipping. Any distortion I would hear would be due to overpowering them and I would immediately turn them down.

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

Not to mention, you ultimately control the output from the speakers. You can set your gains on the amps so that they will see plenty of power, but never the full 200w if you so desire.
Just be sensible with the gains, and listen to the speakers for distortion and I think you would be fine. Im very much one for some additional headroom. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

That's what I'm planning on doing with them. I'll probably never feed them that kind of power, but it's nice to know it's there.