hey everyone, which seems to be a lot of people...huge forum...anywho, a few months ago I purchased a 4-channel 1400W Soundstorm amp (division of Boss if you didn't know) and my 2 12's (kenwood tornado series) at 700W each. back then, I had someone else (circuit city) to install it, don't ask why...I was lazy and didn't really know how at the time...regardless, I thought they bridged it at the time, but I was wrong, they only had it hooked up to 2 channels, which I just realized today. so I ran to the store and got 2 RCA y-splitters and changed the speaker wires so it was all bridged and happy. the thing is, when I cranked it back up, I didn't notice any difference. any suggestions?

 

ok, let me get this strait, you have 2 sets of rca's running to the amp?

I have a 4 chanel amp and only have 1 set of rca's, un split, going to the amp. Your amp speaker connectinos should be marked where the bridge-able chanels are.
I'm not sure what the problem is so I'll just explain exactly how my amp is hooked up

I have 2 sets of rca inputs on my amp
The red pre out from the deck is going to the red input, in the first set
The black pre out from the deck is going to the black input, in the second set.

Your installation guide should tell you (if its not marked on the map itself) which speaker outputs are the bridged lines. For my amp it is the second output on the left side, and the first output on the right side.

Other than that, just mess with the levels.

Hope this helps... I'm not an expert myself, but I've installed my amp in 3 different cars and helped countless friends do theirs. I think I know what I'm talking about, but I could be totally wrong.

Pm me if you have any more questions.

 

First, how did you bridge the amp? I'm not familiar with this amp, but I'm sure it's like most amps. To bridge it, hook the positive wire from one of the subs into the positive terminal of channel 1. Then take the negative of the same sub wire and hook it into the negative terminal of channel 2. Take the other sub's positive wire and hook it into channel 3 positive terminal, and hook the negative wire into channel 4 negative terminal. Some amps have a bridged switch on them. If your amp does, switch it to the bridged mode. You shouldn't need the RCA splitter for this. Hope this helps.

 

alright...if I could find my camera I'd take pics, I'll try to do that later...


in the back of the HU I have my red wire (that runs into the 4 channel inputs in the amp)...at each end it splits off into 2 different male plugs...they are hooked up to the preouts marked "front" behind the HU and into channels 1 and 2...

I got my 2 y-splitters and have one now going to channels 1-2 and the other going to channels 3-4...I changed the speaker wire so it is now bridged, but there didn't seem to be much/any difference...hope that helped...if not I'll go find a camera and take pictures...

 

I only used the RCA splitters to utilize all 4 channels, not to bridge the amp...sorry to double post, but you all reply so fast...heh...

 

get a sony xplod. you can run the wires normal and it bridged internally. now the way that eworvo explained i have never herd of. basically to bridge two speakers you need to find out if you want to run them in series or parallel. in series it would go like this.

pos on the amp to pos on one speaker
neg on same speaker to pos on other speaker
neg on 2nd speaker to negative on amp
both pos and neg on amp shoudl be marked "bridged" unless bridged internally

for parrallel.. run the positive to the bridged pos and the negative to the bridged negative.
hint.. both pos wires into one terminal and both neg into one terminal.

the difference is series is a smoother bas with less power to each speaker and double the resistance to get you power output from the amp.

in parallel you would divide the resistance of the speakers by 2 and get you resistance and look up amp spec to get power output

ex series 4 ohm + 4ohm = 8 ohm = 500 watts( as per amp specs)
ex parallel 4ohm + 4ohm /2 = 2 ohms = 1200 watts (as per amp specs)
these two are just examples of how that works. sorry i cannot draw a diagram for you. hope that helps. also one other thing.

if you run the speakers facing towards each other(band pass box please reverse teh polarity of one of the speakers and the movement of the speakers will cancel the each other out and you will get nothing but the voice coils working for you.

man that was a lot of writing. pm with any more questions

 

My bad I didn't clarify what I meant about the RCAs. I meant you don't need them (splitters) for bridging, as you stated. All you need is 2, one going to each side. The other 2 are usually bypassed when the amp is bridged anyway.

 

Actually TurboZ I was referring to bridging the amp, not the speakers. Very few, if any, amps will allow you to run a set of speakers off of all 4 channels. You can only run 1 speaker on each side of the amp. Can't bridge all 4 channels together.

 

what exactly do you mean bridgeing the amp? i have never heard of this. i have worked on audio systems for some time.. but this is new to me. would you mind explaining what it is supposed to do so i can understand a little better. i may even be able to offer some tips

the only thing i can thing of from what you are talking about is trying to hook up a front and rear output which is usally supplied with most head units(and sometimes a NON-FADING) and most amps have 2 set of L/R inputs. if i understand correctly he is trying to run 4 inputs off the amp from one L/R output off the head unit? is this correct?

if this is true.. i would stay away from splitters. they actually lower your output voltage (split it) and give you less of a sound so you have to turn up the gain. sorry if i am confusin everyone. just trying to understand and off my advice.

 

Not a problem. I'll try to clarify what I said earlier. With a 4 channel amp, you have 2 sides, a left and a right. On each side you have 2 channels for front and rear. Normally channel 1 is right front, channel 2 is right rear, channel 3 is left front, and channel 4 is left rear. By hooking it up as I said earlier you effectively have only a left and a right only, eliminating your front to rear fade as you stated. This enables you to send more power to each speaker. Depending on the quality of the amp, you can double the amount of power going to the speaker. For example, you have a 4 X 100 watt amp. You bridge it to 2 channels, effectively making it a 2 X 200 watt amp. Some amps will even double this rating, giving you a 2 X 400 watt amp, again depending on the quality of the amp. When you bridge the amp, you no longer need inputs into channels 3 & 4, since they will be bypassed. I don't claim to be an expert by any means, I've just been doing this for many years as well. Hope this makes it clear as mud.

 

alright, so after I bridge the amp, which 2 channels (since you said I didn't need splitters) should I be using? 1 and 4? doesn't make sense...ah, I'll try to get out my digital camera tomorrow. I would have done it today but I had me one of those good ol' 13 hour shifts...gotta pay for all this stuff somehow...

 

OK try this. Your RCA's will go into channels 1 & 3 for input; channel 1 for right and channel 3 for left. Hook your speakers up in the following manner:

Channel 1: Right speaker positive lead into positive terminal
Channel 2: Right speaker negative lead into negative terminal
Channel 3: Left speaker positive lead into positive terminal
Channel 4: Left speaker negative lead into negative terminal

If this doesn't work, pics will definitely help to figure it out

 

alright, here goes pics

BEFORE





AFTER








the "after" setup should be carrying more power, making louder bass, but it just isn't happening...it sounds the same...I had a thought though, could it be the speaker wire is already carrying all the power it can handle? I mean, it's 8 gauge as I recall...maybe 10...my system specs are in my first post


EDIT: well crap, you can go to 'properties' and copy/paste the URLs...guess I can't image link there any more...here are the URLs...


http://uploader.lathwood.co.uk/upload/b/before_1.jpg
http://uploader.lathwood.co.uk/upload/b/before_2.jpg
http://uploader.lathwood.co.uk/upload/a/after_1.jpg
http://uploader.lathwood.co.uk/upload/a/after_2.jpg

 

First, to answer your question, your speaker wire should be large enough for the power. Shouldn't have a problem there. I don't want to sound too elementary, but by looking at your pics, your levels aren't adjusted the same and your crossover switches are in different positions. I'm sure you looked at this already, but try adjusting the controls and putting the crossover switches in the same setting. A question I have is are both speakers hitting the same or is one hitting harder/ louder than the other? Double check your connections against the manual also. If this doesn't work, reply again and I'll sleep on it tonight. It's 2am here and I gotta get some sleep. Hope this helps. Out!

 

see here's the thing, I know a decent bit about this field (more than a lot of people I know) but I'm still no expert...hardly a novice, heh...so the crossover settings, I didn't ever fiddle with those simply because everything sounded good and I figured circuit city would've handled it (wrong again...last time I trust them...). I'm taking it that they should be even, but would ya mind telling my how they should be set? I know that you were just pointing it out, and that it has nothing to do with the bridging though, and there still should be a difference between the two setups, since everything was set the same for both setups...

I'll take it up to some empty parking lot and mess around with it a little bit, see if one's hitting harder than the other...don't want the neighbors complaining, y'know?