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Jeff Rowland

I recently replaced my Parasound A21 with a JR M525. It has taken my system to new levels: soundstaging, spacing between instruments, tonality, and a natural midrange. The M525 is the first amp I've ever owned that presents a 3 dimensional soundstage. All that being said, now I wonder what improvements going from the M525 to the JR S2 integrated or bridged M525s will yield? Is it a night and day difference? Are bridged M525 better than the S2? My system: Aerial 7Ts, PS Audio DirectStream DAC, Bryston BDP-2, and all Wireworld Silver 7 cables.
ricred1
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almarg
9,670 posts
 
I'm not familiar with the specific amp, but in general I would not expect a bridged amp to provide good results when driving your particular speakers. As can be seen in the impedance curve shown here, the impedance of your speakers is in the vicinity of 3.5 to 4 ohms between 50 and 100 Hz, where lots of energy is often required, and is close to 3 ohms around 25 Hz. In bridged mode the amplifier will "see" a load impedance equal to half those values, i.e. 1.5 to 2 ohms, and of course most amps will not perform at their best when dealing with such low impedances.

Regards,
-- Al
ricred1 OP
2,058 posts
 
Al,
Thanks for the technical information. Now it makes sense why Rowland was hesitant to say for sure bridged 525s would work.
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kijanki
4,432 posts
 
Al is right (as usual). This amp most likely uses PASCAL S-PRO2 class D modules. Data sheet shows minimum load of 2 ohms or 4 ohms when bridged. Bridging might create problems with your speakers gaining only about 20% of loudness. Not worth trying IMHO.

http://www.pascal-audio.com/downloads/S-PRO2_Datasheet-1_20.pdf
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