Bridged ZX450 for splits......

SAM77H · Post by **SAM77H** » Tue Jun 01, 2010 8:53 pm

As title states I am considering bridging the amp so as to have the 250rms per side for the splits. Would this double the distortion and not be advisable?

Am running passive for the splits obviously and active off my 600.4 on my 8" midbasses

Obviously I will be wiring the RCA's so as to keep the stereo correct.

dedlyjedly · Post by **dedlyjedly** » Tue Jun 01, 2010 9:01 pm

Yes, you'll certainly increase the distortion levels...BUT the figures will still be well within an acceptable range and the difference won't be audible. What you will be able to notice are the benefits of drastically increased headroom and for that reason alone I highly recommend this plan of attack for any responsible listener.

SAM77H · Post by **SAM77H** » Tue Jun 01, 2010 9:06 pm

sweet. I love it when a plan comes together !

Post by **Eric D** » Tue Jun 01, 2010 9:07 pm

I ran a ZX450 this way for close to a year and loved every minute of it. I think my components loved it as well...

SAM77H · Post by **SAM77H** » Tue Jun 01, 2010 9:23 pm

excellent. My Hybrid Audio Legatia's arrived yesterday so I am deciding how to set it up......

amps are zx450
Tantrum 600.4 and 1200.1

Splits L41-2x and L8
Sub JL 13w7

The Golden One · Post by **The Golden One** » Tue Jun 01, 2010 11:00 pm

one thing is when you bridge it i dont think you can get both the front and rear channels to have the same cross over frequency.the rear channel i think would be crossed over lower. or maybe you guys know some thing i dont it just seems like ive had that prob before.one weird thing was when i bridged mine on two lanzar pro 12's one of them was moving an evil looking 2inchs while the other was only moving 1 1/2 inchs.something was weard and maybe not the same thing as on highs.

Post by **smgreen20** » Wed Jun 02, 2010 6:18 am

SAM77H, I loved how the Legatia's sound. A guy I know has the 6,4,1 set up in his car (he competes in the ?MECAi? sound off circuit) and it was very loud and well..... clean. You'll love those. I've been tinkering w/the idea of getting those as well. I have yet to run my 450 bridged to 2 chs, but have toyed with the idea as well. For now I run passively active so I'm staying in 4 ch mode for now.

The Golden One, when you say LANZAR Pros, what years were those? I had the Pros from '92 and miss them greatly. A friend still has his, unused.

The Golden One · Post by **The Golden One** » Wed Jun 02, 2010 9:58 am

those are from around 96 i dont know if they are any different than any others i do know they pound.the first time i heard those pro 12,s dude had some in a tiny civic hatch in a huge box that was the trend back in the day.that had to the hardest hitting pair of 12,s iv ever heard. it was insane to sit in that car flippin insane. you mite be a redneck if your speaker box is bigger than your back seat and trunk space.

SAM77H · Post by **SAM77H** » Wed Jun 02, 2010 2:18 pm

I just looked at the amp and the front channel goes from 30-600Hz same as the back but front has a 10x frequency multiplier switch so you could have a different range if you wanted.

winno · Post by **winno** » Wed Jun 02, 2010 5:57 pm

Sorry to put a damper on things BUT...

While you'll end up with gobs more power and great dynamics, you may 'possibly' not like the sound from the midrange and up when in bridged mode.

I dunno.

Try it bridged. Then try it unbridged. You'll probably find that in unbridged mode, the sound will be sweeter and smoother.
That's what I noticed from my own experience.

Bottom line, try both ways and then decide.

If you run unbridged and you have a couple of spare channels, try running your splits with the active cross overs in the amp. The amp x-overs are v good quality.
Active is great - will give you greater flexibility of x-over point and gain for each driver. You'll also end up with slightly better dynamics because there's no passive network soaking up your watts.

I currently run a bridged ZX475Ti into my midbasses and it goes hard, but that's in an active system. The mids and tweeters are fed an unbridged signal for SQ reasons.

waynehead · Post by **waynehead** » Wed Jun 02, 2010 6:04 pm

The only reason I could see it not sounding good is if you exceed the limits of the components of your passive crossovers. Definitely try it

Post by **Eric D** » Thu Jun 03, 2010 4:26 am

waynehead wrote:The only reason I could see it not sounding good is if you exceed the limits of the components of your passive crossovers. Definitely try it

My thoughts exactly. It should be nearly impossible to detect the increase in distortion from the amp by bridging it. Something else was likely breaking down.

The Golden One · Post by **The Golden One** » Thu Jun 03, 2010 8:02 am

i bridged my 450 on my ti5's well just the midrange's via other crossover means.the main reason i didnt go with the ti xovers with tweets because i have the worst luck with blowing tweets.i wont lie it did sound like an out door concert hall and the dynamics deamed the 450 worty of having phoenix gold wrote on it.but compared to my 2125 or 0.3 it was like a really big cake with no icing on top.

Post by **ttocs** » Thu Jun 03, 2010 9:21 am

my golden ears have never heard the difference in distortion between an amp being bridged or regular mode. I too would have to agree it would have had to do with tuning or something else in the line.

shawn k · Post by **shawn k** » Thu Jun 03, 2010 12:28 pm

thedeal7235 · Post by **thedeal7235** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 11:37 am

the last time i tried this my comps. were passive-now i use a eclipse cd5000 which has built in overs as steep as 24db& i bypass the zx475ti xover-i thru on 2 ysplitters from my front rcas so the signa/frequency l is the same to front&rear , gain set the amp w/ sine wave test tone(& am runnin 4 ohm speakers so i used the sq.root formula, which should be 31.62v ac-i knew that was alot based on 250watts, so i gain set to 25vac) & it is nice!the seperation is EXCELLENT & i find im maybe taking volume up to half, at most- glad this thread was brought up; i had long forgotten 'bout tryn' this

Pillow · Post by **Pillow** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 6:05 pm

... Why not just use a ZX500?

The ZX450 is an awesome amp, but to me it is best used active on a component set or 4-way.

IMHO

SAM77H · Post by **SAM77H** » Mon Jun 07, 2010 8:42 pm

Pillow wrote:... Why not just use a ZX500?

The ZX450 is an awesome amp, but to me it is best used active on a component set or 4-way.

IMHO

Well I have a ZX450 not a ZX500 hence my question. Also a ZX450 puts out 250w x2 (when bridged) compared to 150wx2 on a ZX500 (unbridged)

paintguy · Post by **paintguy** » Tue Jun 08, 2010 9:58 am

Have you considered running them active from the ZX450? That's how I'll be running my L1 & L3.

Apparently active operation is highly recommended for the Legatia line, and the rated output of the ZX450 should be more than enough as you won't be asking them to produce any real bass (that's what the L8's are for)

dedlyjedly · Post by **dedlyjedly** » Tue Jun 08, 2010 12:03 pm

I suppose we just need someone to setup a double-blind listening test to compare a ti500.4 bridged stereo to a ti1000.2 in stereo operation and settle this once and for all!

SAM77H · Post by **SAM77H** » Tue Jun 08, 2010 2:39 pm

paintguy wrote:Have you considered running them active from the ZX450? That's how I'll be running my L1 & L3.

Apparently active operation is highly recommended for the Legatia line, and the rated output of the ZX450 should be more than enough as you won't be asking them to produce any real bass (that's what the L8's are for)

I am definately considering this !
Just thought the 250rms passive may do more good than the 75rms active

rscecil007 · Post by **rscecil007** » Tue Jun 08, 2010 4:46 pm

paintguy wrote:Have you considered running them active from the ZX450? That's how I'll be running my L1 & L3.

Apparently active operation is highly recommended for the Legatia line, and the rated output of the ZX450 should be more than enough as you won't be asking them to produce any real bass (that's what the L8's are for)

Yes, Scott is all about running those puppies active. I'm running my L6's and my L1V2's that way now.

And plan on doing the same when my L6SE arrives, and later when the L4SE and L1 Pro SE does.