Wetsounds Pro 80 best way to wire to the amp for maximum sound??

[waterskiing=life]

Last year I purchased the Pro 80s. They are amazing and really rock the lake. Unfortunately the amp went, but I have a new amp ready.

Here are the specs for the new amp
170w x2 at 4 ohms
500w x1 at 4 ohms bridged.

The question is should I bridge it? I never bridged a system before. If I do this do I run the speakers in parallel?


Thanks in advance for the help!!

[chpthril]

I'm guessing your new amp is a 2 chnl amp? What brand?

If you wired a pair of Pro80's in parallel, you would have a 2 ohm load, maybe a little less in all actuality. Not may amps will handle a 2 ohm load in bridge mode.

IMO, the ideal solution is to just put each Pro80 on its own chnl.

[waterskiing=life]

The amp is a Kenwood 2 channel amp.

You are right it would be 250 rms bridged at 2 ohms.

chpthril- in your opinion do you think this amp will have enough power to power the pro 80's being that it will only have 170 rms per channel at 4 ohms?

[chpthril]

The amp is a Kenwood 2 channel amp.

You are right it would be 250 rms bridged at 2 ohms.

chpthril- in your opinion do you think this amp will have enough power to power the pro 80's being that it will only have 170 rms per channel at 4 ohms?

170W is respectable, but they will easily handle more. How does this amp compare in power to the previous one? Since the performance benchmark has been set with the old amp, how they will sound on the new amp may be more of a perception then a fact. Does that make sense?

[JohnnieMo]

To bridge an amplifier you wire the speakers in parallel and "tie" the two channels together into one. This means you lose the left/right stereo aspect. You get a blended signal. However bridging results in a doubling of the output power of the amplifier. But this also means the amp is running twice as hard (twice as hot).

In a boat, given they spend all day in the sun, the amp could overheat. Most amps don't support a 2ohm bridged load. They will overheat, or clip, or generally do bad things. Clean power is better than more power.

170W for a tower speaker should be lots. Consider the "deck" power of most CD players is 22W, and they still sound reasonable.

John

[Nobody]

Last year I purchased the Pro 80s. They are amazing and really rock the lake. Unfortunately the amp went, but I have a new amp ready.

Here are the specs for the new amp
170w x2 at 4 ohms
500w x1 at 4 ohms bridged.

The question is should I bridge it? I never bridged a system before. If I do this do I run the speakers in parallel?


Thanks in advance for the help!!

I wouldn't give a pro 80 anything less than 400 watts "each".
This means buying one more amp...but if you do, you'll think you have 4 pro80's on your tower. Go for it.