Stereo amp to drive one center channel speaker?


I'm venturing into surround sound & I have all this equipment laying around. I have a two channel counterpoint amp that I would like to use to drive one speaker.

How do I hook it up?
Any danger of blowing up either the speaker or the amp.
If I use both channels will the impence change & affect the sound?
joeadd
Hi
i have the fosgate 4125 and it is bidge-able it shows the diagram on the back to bridge it,so all amps dont have to have a switch to make it bridge-able,if it dont have a switch or a diagram telling you how to bridge it,than i would say it is not bridge-able
but if it is bridge-able like me mine is and i used 1 of the bridged channels to run my mtx center speaker in briged mode i run the positive with the positive and negitive to the negitive of 1 of the speakers and it seems to work fine
Most modern amps can be played without a speaker connected. But some amps require a load or damage can occur. This is especially true for tube amps. You can put an 8ohn resistor across the unused speaker terminals if you are not sure.
I,like several others "did" the bi-wire/amp.I did this with 5/6 different processors--over 8/9 years.I once had the Fosgate 3a--it had 2 center ch.outs.

I now have a Meridian 565 and for some reason it"hates" to drive a Y. So, I now use just the r.ch./and only bi-wire my AerialCC3. Truth be known,it sounds the same with just 1/2 a stereo amp.
I use an aragon 8002 for my center channel amp..
It is fed via y connector at the amp end from the center output of the processor... both channels are utilized and
in essence, I am bi-amping my center channel... My center channel, or course allows for bi wire or bi amping...
Good Luck,
Joe
I had an Acurus A150 that I used for my center channel for awhile. I just used one channel (right)input and connected speaker to that side. Don't hook up anything to the unused side.
Should work fine. You may want to consult with the manufacturer first, though.
I use a Classe Seventy, which cannot be bridged mono for my center channel. The Aerial model 5 I use for the center can be biwired so I just use a 'Y' connector from my processor and drive the tweeter with one channel and the woofer with the other. If your speaker is not birwirable and your amp will not bridge to mono you will have to use just one channel, and that will work just fine.
If you still have the manual for it, you can see if the Counterpoint can be bridged, otherwise I think it would be a risky proposition not knowing the correct connection configuration. If the amp has enough power, just use one of the channels for your center channel. More than likely the amp will be able to put out a bit more power only driving a single channel and it'll be easier on the amp overall. I'm using a single channel of my Bryston 4B to run a subwoofer.
Can you bridge you amp? if yes then just connect the output of you Processor center channel to the bridged input of your amp and them connect the appropriate terminals on your amp to the speaker. if not you can use one channel of your amp or you can even run a Y cable from your processor then by-wire your speaker. I guess you have many options that you must choose from.
good luck
The first thing is to determine whether the amp can be bridged to mono. If there is a switch for this you are probably ok. If not, you won't be able to bridge without internal adjustments. I would not do this myself. Call the manufacturer.

The second thing to consider is that when you bridge to mono, you are effectively halving the load impedance since each channel only sees and amplifies half the wave form.
Now this might work if the speakers have a benign impedance, say a resistive 8 ohm load.

I don't know of any reason why you can't just use one channel of the amp to drive a speaker. Again, I would consult with the manufacturer.

Most manufacturers of speakers I've owned (mostly electrostatics/planars) don't recommend bridging for the above reason.

Jim