Emerald Metaphor
Member
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2023
- Messages
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- 3
Hi,
I have an active vintage (all bought used) system with a (bought new) DSP where I run the bass, the down-firing 10 inch woofers of a pair of Snell Type Ai's with either my NAD C270 or just the identical power stage of my C370 (one sits idle right now, a magical hedge against my tube amp failing!!!). A Dynaco ST-70 runs the mids and highs, but as anyone knows, these amps do tend to fail from time to time (lost an output transformer to it being over biased, not my doing, then I lost one of the channels for a few small parts frying after that repair, I also killed the protection circuit on my C370 trying to figure out the gain structure without a scope, poor man, rich tastes, lol, I get by with SCIENCE!!!!)
So, I have an extra amp for surviving repairs as converting back out of active is a giant pain too, and it is a 3 hour drive to the place I get it fixed, and I have no car.
NAD warns against running anything under 8 ohms bridged, but then I found this post and others linked from it: https://www.avsforum.com/threads/na...unning-4-ohm-load-safe.1240549/#post-22442277
www.stereophile.com
These few people seem to have no issues. Now I also do not run my system hard, I tend to mostly run it at just a bit over 50% max voltage into the SS amp, only occasionally do I need to put about 75% of max in to get to my normal listening level on informationally dense or low levelled rips (DSD's seem to use more power as far as I can tell!). I simply can't unleash the monster in an apartment on any day (although I am planning to sound proof my listening room for a totally nearfield set up, exactly so I can crank it a bit more!!!)
I am curious to try running each woofer with one mono-blocked amp not for more power for loudness, but to see if in the active mode, with direct coupling to the driver, I can notice improvement in sound resolution, quicker, tighter bass, etc. I intend to cut the DSP outputs down by about 4 db in the DSP to track with an affective doubling+ of power in bridge mode to each woofer, so again, I doubt I will ever draw on anything near full power out of these amps bridged, probably even less (but for the dynamic peaks, and this is the issue as these amps test at over 400 watts into 2 ohms, will every circuit in the amp and driver handle that for long, who knows, right???, that is serious power 400+ watts peak possible into one 10 inch woofer without any crossover!!!), but would be sad to kill the protection circuit or worse. If I had more money I wouldn't care, but if I kill both amps playing Kendrick Lamar's Damn, or Daft Punk's Random Access Memories--the guy upstairs complains every time I play that GOES VERY LOW production--that would really suck!
If I had a Bryston 4B as my second spare amp, lol, I'd have already tried this.
Anyone here got any thoughts how risky this is to try, given that a few have had no issues with identical amps, and I am not "rocking out" to upset my neighbours?
My C270 doesn't even get warm when I use it, I swear that amp will outlive us all!
My Dynaco is a decent space heater, as all tube amps are, lol.
Thanks for your reasoned opinions, the fun here is in chasing dragons that don't dissolve your brain at all, just empty your wallet!!!
I have an active vintage (all bought used) system with a (bought new) DSP where I run the bass, the down-firing 10 inch woofers of a pair of Snell Type Ai's with either my NAD C270 or just the identical power stage of my C370 (one sits idle right now, a magical hedge against my tube amp failing!!!). A Dynaco ST-70 runs the mids and highs, but as anyone knows, these amps do tend to fail from time to time (lost an output transformer to it being over biased, not my doing, then I lost one of the channels for a few small parts frying after that repair, I also killed the protection circuit on my C370 trying to figure out the gain structure without a scope, poor man, rich tastes, lol, I get by with SCIENCE!!!!)
So, I have an extra amp for surviving repairs as converting back out of active is a giant pain too, and it is a 3 hour drive to the place I get it fixed, and I have no car.
NAD warns against running anything under 8 ohms bridged, but then I found this post and others linked from it: https://www.avsforum.com/threads/na...unning-4-ohm-load-safe.1240549/#post-22442277
NAD C370 integrated amplifier
NAD has been out there on the leading edge of entry-level high-end sound long enough that some audiophiles reckon they invented the category. Sure, we should give serious props to the likes of Creek, Rotel, Musical Fidelity, Arcam, Denon, and Parasound, all of which have made significant...
www.stereophile.com
Bridging NAD with Maggies
I need a little help here. I want to connect my two NAD 214 amplifiers in bridged mode to a pair of Magnepan 3A's. However in reading the NAD website
forums.audioreview.com
These few people seem to have no issues. Now I also do not run my system hard, I tend to mostly run it at just a bit over 50% max voltage into the SS amp, only occasionally do I need to put about 75% of max in to get to my normal listening level on informationally dense or low levelled rips (DSD's seem to use more power as far as I can tell!). I simply can't unleash the monster in an apartment on any day (although I am planning to sound proof my listening room for a totally nearfield set up, exactly so I can crank it a bit more!!!)
I am curious to try running each woofer with one mono-blocked amp not for more power for loudness, but to see if in the active mode, with direct coupling to the driver, I can notice improvement in sound resolution, quicker, tighter bass, etc. I intend to cut the DSP outputs down by about 4 db in the DSP to track with an affective doubling+ of power in bridge mode to each woofer, so again, I doubt I will ever draw on anything near full power out of these amps bridged, probably even less (but for the dynamic peaks, and this is the issue as these amps test at over 400 watts into 2 ohms, will every circuit in the amp and driver handle that for long, who knows, right???, that is serious power 400+ watts peak possible into one 10 inch woofer without any crossover!!!), but would be sad to kill the protection circuit or worse. If I had more money I wouldn't care, but if I kill both amps playing Kendrick Lamar's Damn, or Daft Punk's Random Access Memories--the guy upstairs complains every time I play that GOES VERY LOW production--that would really suck!
If I had a Bryston 4B as my second spare amp, lol, I'd have already tried this.
Anyone here got any thoughts how risky this is to try, given that a few have had no issues with identical amps, and I am not "rocking out" to upset my neighbours?
My C270 doesn't even get warm when I use it, I swear that amp will outlive us all!
My Dynaco is a decent space heater, as all tube amps are, lol.
Thanks for your reasoned opinions, the fun here is in chasing dragons that don't dissolve your brain at all, just empty your wallet!!!
