Two NAD 2200 bridged amps w/6 ohm speakers - OK?


My brother-in-law has lent me two NAD 2200 power amps and my current two-channel setup includes two Thiel CS2 speakers - 6 ohms and efficiency of 87 (I forget the units). My high end dealer here in town told me (when I thought I had 4 ohm speakers) to not use these amps in bridge mode with 4 ohm speakers, that the NAD amps would not like seeing the 2 ohm load. (And then, I've read in one forum the offhand remark that these amps are stable down to 1 ohm.)

Well, I have 6 ohm speakers, should I go ahead and try the amps in bridged mode? If I keep the volume at low to medium, will I mitigate my risk, or will the amplifiers be unhappy with 6 ohm speakers regardless of the volume? If I get too ambitious, do these amplifiers have protection circuitry, or will they just fry? How will I know if the amps are starting to complain - heat? Any chance of damaging my speakers before an amp shuts down?

Also, these speakers seem to spend most of their "time" between 7 and 9 ohms (see chart in this article:
http://www.stereophile.com/content/thiel-cs2-loudspeaker-measurements ). Is the fact that at most frequencies the speakers are above 6 ohms of any benefit?

I've searched many forums for several hours, for three or four days, but can find no info other than if one uses 8 ohm speakers with these amps in Bridge mode, one will certainly be OK. So, if anyone has experience with using these amps with 6 ohm speakers, or know what to try, not to try, how to be careful - or just want to recommend: don't do it! - I'll be glad to hear your suggestions. (Except, bi-amping is not an option with these speakers- that would have been too easy.)

THANKS very much.
delsfan

Showing 1 response by 2002ss335

I never tried using the 2200 bridged when I had a pair but from the manual.

Note: in the bridged mode the loudspeaker’s impedance is effectively halved as “seen” by the amplifier. An 8-ohm load looks like 4-ohms, a 4-ohm load looks like 2-ohm, and a pair of 4-ohm speakers operated in parallel will look like a 1-ohm load. Driving paralleled low-impedance speakers to high levels may cause the amplifier to overheat and shut down, or cause internal fuses to blow in order to protect the amplifier. For best results the bridging mode should be used with a single 4-ohm or 8-ohm speaker in each channel.

If you try it start with a low volume and feel how hot they get. Most of the NAD manuals can be found here:

NAD

Regards,
Todd