Is it better to get dedicated monoblocks instead of bridging stereo paired amps?


I am trying to decide between MacIntosh MC611 monoblocks or 2 SimAudio Moon Audio 761 amps used as monoblocks (bridge stereo channels). 

I love the Moon audio 761 sound. It is so good. Def. my favorite. The only issue for me is, when you bridge the stereo to use them as monoblocks it lessens the damping factor (only miniscule). And there is a large amount more gain in the bridged operation and probably a slight rise in the noise floor. I confirmed this with tech support. 

I have only heard the 761 as a stereo in person, I have not heard 2 pairs in bridge mode and I won't be able to have that opportunity. 

I guess what I am trying to figure out is... for my use case, am I better off going with the MC611's since they are dedicated monoblocks? I am worried that I will notice the difference with the 761s in bridge mode and be disappointed. My hearing is very sensitive to amp sound characteristics (hence why I enjoy hifi so much).   

dman777

Showing 1 response by mulveling

Bridging two SS stereo amplifiers to mono is usually NOT a good trade-off for the massive power gained - up to 4x power for amps that "double down" i.e. high current. Why 4x power and not 2x? Because bridging doubles the output voltage which also draws (or attempts to) 2x current since the speaker load is the same. Or put another way, each L/R side of an amp "sees" half the speaker load and thus is dumping 2x the current at the same voltage as before - but both sides are now working in tandem (opposite phase) so these stack and 2x (current) * 2x (L/R sides) = 4x. Net result: amp is working harder (as if the speaker load were halved), and it often sounds worse. There’s also often extra circuitry to invert the input signal for opposing phases. I’ve experienced this myself - don’t like the bridged mono sound. Dedicated monos are the much, much better way to go.

Tube amps with a switch to stereo/mono mode are different - they typically parallel the output of L/R sides through their output transformers. The taps effectively become half the labeled value  in "mono" mode (e.g. 8 ohm taps become 4 ohms), so you just move down to the next tap as needed - that’s how 2 ohm taps (or even 1 ohms) can come in handy! In my experience, the extra power here (2x) is a benefit with none of the downsides of bridging - in fact, often these tube amps sound drastically better in mono!