4B SST Bridged VS 7B SST

Skyhawk · « **on:** 7 Feb 2005, 04:42 am »

I am hoping the good people in this forum might be able to help sway me in the right direction.

I am looking at using Bryston amplifiers to power my newly acquired Nautilus 802's

My question is this. What advantage/disadvantage would the following combos have?

1x 4B SST Bridged per speaker (1000W according to bryston.ca)

or

1X 7B SST per speaker (600W)

My gear includes Krell SACD standard & BP25

Fife12 · « **Reply #1 on:** 7 Feb 2005, 04:59 am »

Go with the 7B SST.

It can go down to 2 ohms much more safely than a bridged 4B SST, especially since you are using power hungry N802 which require gobs of clean power.

You could probably get away with a bridged 4B but I think 1 7B is better.

dan_lo · « **Reply #2 on:** 7 Feb 2005, 08:28 am »

I agree.
Bryston recommends using 7b over bridged 4b's.

nicolasb · « **Reply #3 on:** 7 Feb 2005, 10:46 am »

In my experience bridging any amp is hardly ever a good idea.

Skyhawk, you might find that a single 4B-SST is actually quite capable of driving Nautilus 802s to your satisfaction. If you were using something even more power-hungry like Nautilus 800s then a pair of 7B-SSTs would sound detectably better, but even then the difference would be subtle rather than in-your-face obvious.

perose · « **Reply #4 on:** 8 Feb 2005, 09:42 pm »

The 7B-SSTs certianly have all the power, and more, than the N802s can handle. I was able to fry one of my N802 woofers when I had my crossover set too low while listening to a Star Wars flick one day.

Since getting new woofers I've set my crossovers at 60Hz and all is well. FWIW for 2-channel I listen full range through a stereo pre-amp.

nicolasb · « **Reply #5 on:** 9 Feb 2005, 09:44 am »

Quote

The 7B-SSTs certianly have all the power, and more, than the N802s can handle.

(nod)

If you really need more power you might also want to consider bi-amping, depending on the cost.

Skyhawk · « **Reply #6 on:** 10 Feb 2005, 03:44 pm »

Thank you all for your input.

I have decided to go ahead with the a pair of 7B's. There was a distinct musical loss when the 4B was bridged, but in its defense rock and roll music like Ozzy Osbourne never sounded so electrifying.

Thanks for all the information here folks.

nicolasb · « **Reply #7 on:** 10 Feb 2005, 04:12 pm »

Well, like I said, bridging is a bad idea for low-impedance loads. Bi-amping, on the other hand, can sound very good. If you have a pair of 4B-SSTs to play with then I suggest you try biamping before investing in 7Bs.