Bridging amps, Good idea or bad idea?

The different times I tried it,I was disappointed with the results of the sound.Transparency,cleanliness,distortion, and changed frequency response just to name some of the drawbacks I encountered.

i was wondering the same thing myself . i had always heard that bridging was not a great idea but i have read that many users of the vac stereo amps that i am interested in trying : specifically the vac phi 300.1a and the vac phi 200 bridge them all the time . they apparently were designed to be bridged with a flip of a switch . i wondered if that makes these vac amps less than ideal when used in their monoblock mode . evidently the manufacturers don't believe there is any problem with bridging . still i wonder ...

Hifihvn
The different times I tried it,I was disappointed with the results of the sound.

My experience exactly. Always preferred one of the amps alone in stereo as opposed to two of them bridged. Now biamping with two amps did seem to yield improvement. Of course you need an extra set of speaker cables.

If you search for on-line reviews of Spectron amp owners then, as far as I know, without exceptions - all states theat then they move from stereo mode to monoblock sound quality more then double.

I am also one of these. Spectron attribute this achievment to the proporly build power supplies most of all and high tolerance of its parts. Simon says that when you switch from stereo to mono - you hear practically distortion-free music.... I am not EE, will not argue techno stuff but I know what I hear. Improvments are STUNNING !!!!!!

Not all amps suffer when run in mono. If an amp is a high current design from the beginning there should not be a problem. ARC Classic 120's are essentially a pair of Classic 60's converted to mono and a pair of Krell KMA 160's is two KSA 80's converted as well. Likewise with many of Krell's and ARC's earlier designs. Many others do this also.