Bridging a Pioneer Amp?

Question

I just bought a TS-W301R 12'' Pioneer Sub and I'm going to be putting it in a sealed box in my trunk. Now I'm looking for an amp to power it, Pioneer has the GM-3300T 2 Channel Amp that looks like it will power it well. The thing is to get the max power to the sub I'm going to have to bridge it... which is new to me, what does this mean and does it degrade the qality of sound? Any help will be good.

Answer 1

If you just bought one, you wont need much power to drive that sub only 150rms watts.

Pioneer TS-W301R
12" Component Subwoofer with 800 Watts Max. Power

150 Watts Nominal Power
4-Ohm Single Voice Coil Design
Recommended Enclosure Use: 1.0 ~ 2.0 Cubic Feet

The continues wattage is what you want to drive the sub at, more power than that you run a high risk of damaging the sub. The class D mono block is the best, if you are going to build up in the future buy a good mono block amp but if do not plan to go beyond this the bridgeable amp will be fine. The audio quality I don't believe you will notice. Each amp has a different way of bridging.

Pioneer is good in receivers and speakers, I like the Memphis Audio line of amplifiers for the cost and quality. Subs I prefer JL Audio for the sound quality. I started off with a pair of 12" Pioneer subs and an Autotek amplifier. Later moved to 2 JL Audio W3 10" subs and a class D mono block 500rms watt amp by Memphis and have been very impressed.

Good luck, I hope this helps.

Answer 2

Bridging simply combines two amplifier channels into a single channel with much more power. The main thing you need to make sure of is that you don't go below the minimum impedance rating; for a 2-channel amp, that usually means 4 ohms. It should work perfectly with a single 4-ohm subwoofer. There's no reason why a mono amp would do a better job in this case.

On paper, a bridged amplifier will probably have a higher distortion rating than it would in 2-channel mode. In practice, any extra distortion still won't be audible, so the sound quality won't be a problem.

The owner's manual will include wiring diagrams for connecting the amp in bridged mode. It's actually a simpler hookup than connecting it in 2-channel mode, so don't be worried. Just follow the directions.

Answer 3

you could do it like mike said, but both subs would be in parrallel causeing the ohms to drop to 2 ohms, meaning twice the wattage. For instance, if your amp is 250x2, then it would be 500x1 bridged @ 4ohm, but if you hook up both speakers together meaning 2 pos wires to the right pos terminal on the amp and 2 neg wires on the left neg of the amp you will be running the subs in parallel= 2ohms which would put you up to about 1000x1 watts, your subs probably are not rated for 2 ohms and your amp also. You will either blow the amp or the subs. If you amp is a 4 channel amp then you can bridge it too 2 channels, 1 channel for each sub causing it to stay in 4ohms. You need to hook up the pos from one speaker to the (front output) right side pos terminal, and the neg from that same speaker to the (front output) left neg terminal. Also you must do the same for the other speaker to the rear output. This doesnt mean one sub is up front and one in the back, this just means that if you had four speakers hooked up then it would be front and back.

Answer 4

You can but mono block amps are more suitable for subs.Mono amps only either have one ot two channels and you don't bridge them, they are set up to where you hook up a sub or two to each channel. You will have to match the impedance or ohm load.