Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Audio Yet another audio idiot question

Do I need a 4 channel RCA cable for my amp if I'm bridging it into 2 channels? About to order a wiring kit and I wanted to make sure beforehand.

I was trying to figure out what happens to the left/right channels when you bridge a 2-channel amp to drive a subwoofer. It turns out that it combines them internally.

Here's what the manual for one amplifier says:

The California amplifiers are capable of being bridged in a mono configuration. This feature
allows you the flexibility of using the amplifier to drive a ** subwoofer or a center channel. In
this configuration the amplifier sums the right and left channel to deliver one channel (mono)
output.
Please note: in order for the amplifier to sum right and left signal information, both right and
left RCA connections must be made.

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That leads me to believe that you must use a Y-cable to feed the audio into both the left and right channels of the bridged amplifier.

If you get a 4 channel and plan to run it in two channel mode all you have to do is get a set of RCA plitters or Y cables. Run it to the amp. It also depends on your amp too. I have a Cadence that can take the two inputs and make the amp run at a 4 channel operation.

i dunno. it would seem to me you would have to run to sets of rca's or the 4 channel rca's like you said.

All right, my understanding is that I need a 4 channel RCA from the hu to the amp, then a single speaker wire set to each crossover, then two speaker wire sets from each crossover to the tweet and driver. Sound about right?

Order a pair of these. Run a single patch cable and split it at the amp. No need to run two patch cables since you're running it bridged.

Wouldn't this work? Seems like a cleaner way than having a couple of y-splits.

How many preamp outputs does your HU have? If it only has 1 pair then you are wasting your money getting 2 pairs of RCAs, you will not be able to plug one of the pairs in. If you have 2 pairs of outputs then you might want to run the two pairs of RCAs just so you have flexability in the future in case you want to eventually run 1 pair of speakers and a sub or 2 pairs of speakers. If you want to be cheap, just get one pair of RCAs and split them at the end.

My HU has four outputs so thats not a problem (an unexpected benefit of getting this HU instead of the SH707 that I was originally planning on). I don't really have any intentions of getting a sub or running the rear speakers on anything but the HU, so I think I'll be fine. If I do get a sub at some point then I could just take two of the four RCA inputs and run them over to the sub amp. As far as cost, I don't think one RCA and two splitters would be any cheaper than one 4 channel RCA cable.

I think my original question has been answered, I need to have 4 RCA inputs regardless of how I go about it. Thanks guys for all the help!