Jump to content

Welcome to TheMalibuCrew!

As a guest, you are welcome to poke around and view the majority of the content that we have to offer, but in order to post, search, contact members, and get full use out of the website you will need to Register for an Account. It's free and it's easy, so don't hesitate to join the TheMalibuCrew Family today!

Getting the most out of my JL M600/6


Zombie

Recommended Posts

I'm trying to get the best use out of my 600/6. I'm fairly knowledgeable about stereo installs and such but quite lame when it comes to bridging channels. I'm currently running four Focal 165 coax speakers in the boat, two WS Pro 80's on the tower and two Focal subs. The subs are powered by a JL 600/1 so they aren't in this equation. I also recently installed a WS-420SQ. Right now, for simplicity more than anything else, I have the Focal in-boats running off channels 1-4 and the 80's bridged (wired in series) on channels 5 & 6. The Focals sound great and the 80's sound good but probably starved for power (I'm assuming). Would it make more sense running the in-boats in parallel off channels 1 & 2 and bridge channels 3 - 6 for the 80's? Since the 80's are wired in series and bridged they are in mono. I'd also like to try them in stereo to see the differences. I get confused with all the output numbers when it comes to bridging channels so there's my confusion. I know if I wire the 4 ohm Focals in parallel they will put a 2 ohm load on the amp. The 80's are 4 ohm as well so bridging them straight would put a 4 ohm load on the amp? is that correct? I had a shop do the install about 2 years ago and while I do like the JL amps, I might have done things different had I did the install myself. Any input and/or suggestions is greatly appreciated.

Link to comment

Would it make more sense running the in-boats in parallel off channels 1 & 2 and bridge channels 3 - 6 for the 80's?

The 80's are 4 ohm as well so bridging them straight would put a 4 ohm load on the amp? is that correct?

Yes it would make sense to do that.

Bridged amps "see" half the load per channel. So four ohm bridged is the same load as two ohm stereo. Safe either way and 200rms to the Pro 80s.

Link to comment

Zombie,

Right now with a pair of tower speakers in series on two bridged channels gives you the equivalent of the combined 4-ohm stereo rated power. That's a bit light for the Pro80s. Your plan for redistributing your amplifier power will work. Four channels bridged into two will do a good job of driving one pair of Pro80s. Running two pair of the Focals off two channels in stereo should work fine, especially since the 165 is a fairly easy speaker to drive (good effiency). One possible down side to this is if you have a pair of dash-mounted speakers with a high positional advantage. If this is the case, then you would like to have independent channels gained differently to bring the dash and rear cockpit speakers into balance and so the dash speakers don't dominate. If this is the case, then ideally you would add another two channels of amplication into your system. Another consideration is, sometimes I discourage ALL channels of a single chassis amplifier with multiple channels (like six) to run at 2-ohms (note that 2-ohm stereo is the same load as 4-ohm bridged) on EVERY channel. While in your transition you will increase power by more than one-third and have a better distribution...you are also loading EVERY channel down to the minimum which tends to max out the amp's power supply and test the thermal limits on a hot July and August afternoons. It's not as taxing with in-boat coaxials but tower HLCDs and subs especially get run very hard. Although, running highpass on all channels is a bit of a break. You know how hard you drive your system so you should have a feel for whether or not you can place the extra demand on your amplifier. Again, eight total channels removes both concerns.

Link to comment

Thank you both for the suggestions. I figured it would be a bit taxing on the amp maxing it out like that. I was just trying to figure this bridging stuff out. Since we're at the end of the season now, I think I'll rewire it up and see how it sounds then shop for a third amp. There are times when I do run it a bit hard so it makes sense to me to have a bit more headroom. Especially since I run the boat in Havasu where summer temps hit 120+.

Link to comment

Thank you both for the suggestions. I figured it would be a bit taxing on the amp maxing it out like that. I was just trying to figure this bridging stuff out. Since we're at the end of the season now, I think I'll rewire it up and see how it sounds then shop for a third amp. There are times when I do run it a bit hard so it makes sense to me to have a bit more headroom. Especially since I run the boat in Havasu where summer temps hit 120+.

120+ degrees. WOW! In that case I would lessen the load and definitely get a 2-channel from the same Class D series. It's so tiny you won't have any trouble finding a location for it. Then you'll never have a concern. The next place the dominoes fall is with the supply cable so make sure you have heavy enough wire for the collective power.

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...