Opinions: USED 200- 300 wpc amp with remote on/off

Hi Sean:
Sorry it took so long to respond (tax season!). Anyhow, the speaker in question is a Cello Amati. What I've decided to do is to utilize a couple of old Kenwood L-07's (mono-blocks) that have been collecting dust for the past several years. The Kenwoods were designed & built when Kenwood was still "Trio" (as I recall, three brothers owned the company)- well before they became a mass-marketed brand. Each amp was conservitavely rated at 150 watts into 8 ohms, but I really don't know what it will do with a 4 or 2 ohm load. The Cello speakers were all designed with low, mid & high binding posts to allow for easy triamplification if desired. My intent (at this stage) is to connect one of the mono-blocks to the woofer inputs, and the other amp to the mid/tweeter input. Since I already own the amps, the price is right, and they can be operated remotely by using a little 12 volt relay. Providing the amps can push out enough current, I should have no problems! Thanks for your response, I truely appreciate it. Ken

I don't know of too many bridged amps that are going to like feeding a 2 ohm load. When you bridge an amp, the amp sees what is effectively half the "real" impedance of the speaker. As such, the amp would be looking at what was effectively a 1 ohm load. Given the dynamic nature of what is fed into a center channel in HT, the amp would typically be coasting in terms of average output levels but may still run into problems.

Out of curiosity, what type of center channel are you running ? A good quality amp that puts out 250 wpc at 8 ohms should "theoretically" produce about 2000 watts at 4 ohms when bridged. I don't know of a center channel speaker that needs anywhere near that amount of power, regardless of the size of the room or how loud you want it to play. You might also want to keep in mind that bass control typically suffers a bit when bridging.

If you want to get "fancy" and retain high power capabilities, bi-amp the center channel using a Sunfire Signature 2 channel amp. It is rated at 600 wpc @ 8 ohms. At 4 ohms, you would have 1200 watts feeding the top end and 1200 watts feeding the bottom end. If the impedance drops to 2 ohms as you state, the amp can deliver 2400 watts per channel. The amp will drive whatever load you throw at it so long as you can feed it enough power. However, if running a steady state signal at low impedances, it can EASILY suck your 20 amp line dry. For all practical purposes though, you should have enough power and AC to do what you want with no problems whatsoever. Sean
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