NAD 216 THX Bridging Question

I have two NAD 216 THX power amplifiers that I would like to use, each in bridge mode, to drive a pair of AR9s.

The specs are:

Bridged (Monophonic) Mode
Continuous Average Power Output into 8ohms 400W (26dBW)
(Minimum power per channel, 20Hz-20kHz,both channels driven, with no more than rated distortion)
IHF dynamic headroom at 8ohms +1.5dB
IHF dynamic power 8 560W (27.5dBW)
(maximum short term power per channel) 4 800W (29dBW)

From the owners manual:

"Note: in the bridge mode the loudspeakers impedance is effectively halved as "seen" by the amplifier. An 8 ohm load looks like 4 ohms, a 4 ohm load looks like 2 ohms" etc, and

"For best results the bridging mode should be used with a single 4 ohm or 8 ohm speaker in each channel."

So it looks like each AR9 will present a 2 ohm load to the NAD 216s but there are no listed specs for 2 ohm loads. Should I be concerned about smoking something or go with the second quote and not worry about it.

Do Not Take This To The Bank..

If It were me, I'd wire it up and use it. I wouldn't run it wide open.

If you bridge the amps, and run a single speaker on each channel what can go wrong?

Just how power hungry are the speakers? Or How loud do you want it to go?

That's gonna be a lot of juice there when you squeeze the trigger

ok, I looked at the specs of the AR's, wait for someone who knows more than me to chime in

noise gate said:

Do Not Take This To The Bank..

If It were me, I'd wire it up and use it. I wouldn't run it wide open.

If you bridge the amps, and run a single speaker on each channel what can go wrong?

Just how power hungry are the speakers? Or How loud do you want it to go?

That's gonna be a lot of juice there when you squeeze the trigger

Click to expand...

I guess the amps protection circuits will kick in if I ask them to do too much so there should be no worries. The AR9s are famously hard to drive. I'm not looking for volume, I'm just looking for enough power for them to sound their best.

After reading a review of the AR9's,

http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/IP.Board/index.php?showtopic=5990

I think your best bet would be to bi-amp.

With a minimum impedance of 3ohms your amps would see 1.5ohm, I bet they wouldn't last long.