mikek@tekid.UUCP (Mike Kyle) (09/20/83)
In real life: Mike Kyle 14065 S.W. Domino St. Beaverton,Oregon 97005 503 646-5429 I have recently aquired a second Son of Ampzilla amplifier and wish to bridge the two together. These amps were built in California by GAS (Great American Stereo). GAS also built a passive bridge unit called The Bridge. I'm looking for one of these bridges or just the schematic to the amplifier so that it would be easier to construct an active bridge.
mikek@tekid.UUCP (Mike Kyle) (09/20/83)
I have recently aquired a second Son of Ampzilla amplifier and wish to bridge the two together. These amps were built in California by GAS (Great American Stereo). GAS also built a passive bridge unit called The Bridge. I'm looking for one of these bridges or just the schematic to the amplifier so that it would be easier to construct an active bridge. In real life: Mike Kyle 14065 S.W. Domino St. Beaverton,Oregon 97005 503 646-5429
jsf007@trsvax.UUCP (09/25/83)
#R:tekid:-154600:trsvax:55100012:000:763 trsvax!jsf007 Sep 23 08:02:00 1983 The way bridging works is seperatly amplifying the positive and negative parts of the input through different amplifiers. Since most preamp out- puts use common ground (i.e. unbalanced outputs), it is hard to do the conversion to balanced outputs with a simple passive circuit effectivly. An active circuit is a fairly trivial matter, however. Two opamps per channel are required. One is configured as a voltage follower, the other as a voltage inverter. The outputs of each of these opamps are fed into the unbalanced inputs of your amps. The speakers are connected across the positive outputs of the amps with the two negative outputs wired together (this may be unnecessary if your output stages are common ground). Steve Fintel ...trsvax!jsf007
rzdz@fluke.UUCP (Richard Chinn) (09/27/83)
I'm posting this reply to the net since it may be of general interest. Bridging an amplifier is no big deal. I don't like to do it for a couple of reasons. 1. If the load impedance stays the same (say 8 ohms) then each amp channel must drive 4 ohms. If the output stage has enough SOA (safe operating area), then fine. Otherwise, expect smoke. 2. There's twice the opportunity for problems if one of your amp's goes south. 3. Neither side of the speaker line can touch ground, since both are hot. I must admit that most of my prejudice comes from having been in the touring PA bizzness, where reliability is paramount. On the positive side, you get twice the power into twice the impedance (nice for driving 16 ohm speakers) and 4 times the power into the same impedance (nice for subwoofers). If you can live with the above mentioned shortcomings, heres what you need to do. I don't know if the ampzillas phase invert. If they do and if GAS sold a *passive* bridging box then they *must* phase invert (unless the box had a transformer in it), then build the following: A voltage divider whose division ratio is equal to the amplifier's voltage gain. That is, if the amplifier has a gain of 28 then the divider must be a 28:1 divider. The output impedance of this divider must be *at least* 10 times less than the input impedance of the amplifier. (If the amplifier has a 22 k input impedance, then the shunt arm of the divider should be 2.2k ohms maxixmum.) The division ratio shoud be accurate (use 1% resistors). Connect the input of the divider to the output of the first amp channel, connect the output of the divider to the input of the second amp channel. Connect the load across the *hot* terminals of each output. Don't use the ground terminals for anything. Neither terminal of the load can come in contact with anything else. Example: The amplifier has a voltage gain of 33. The input impedance is 22k. I assume you know what a voltage divider looks like. The divider must have a division ratio of 33:1, thus the resistor values must be in the ratio 32:1 (value ratio = 32:1, then division ratio = 33:1) If the shunt leg must be 2.2k, then the series leg is: 2.2k * 32 = 70.4k. The nearest 1% value is: 69.8k. this results in a division ratio of: 31.73, probably close enough. If your amplifier doesn't phase invert, then there is no way to do what you want passively (except to use a center tapped transformer). I don't consider transformers truly *passive*, especially for a high performance stereo system. You can do what you want actively. It will take one op-amp. I suggest 1/2 of a ne5532 (can't use the 5534 as it is not unity gain stable) as an inverting amplifier. this time it can have unity gain. Make the gain setting resistors the same value, say 22k ohms, 1%. The input of this goes to the output of the preamp, and one amp channel. The output of the inverter goes to the remaining amp input. One reply to the net recommended using two op-amps, with one running as a voltage follower. While this will work, the voltage follower has been condemmed as a source of distortion, both slew induced and common mode, since it is running at 100% feedback. If your preamp will drive the combined loads of the inverter and power amp input in parallel, this is far superior. If your preamp won't, then I suggest running the non-inverting stage with some gain, preceeding it with a voltage divider to exactly offset that gain. In either case, the speaker (load) goes between the two hot terminals of the amplifier. The ground terminals are *not* used. I hope this helps. If you want more details, reply by mail or usmail or phone: Rick Chinn John Fluke Manufacturing MS-232E POB C9090 Everett WA 98206 (206) 356 5232 or fluke!tpvax!rzdz
jj@rabbit.UUCP (09/28/83)
I must beg to differ with the opinion recently offered about bridging amplifiers on several grounds: 1) An amplifier that is conditionally stable, and ampzilla's certainly qualify, (I know of some that are not even conditionally stable, grrr) will have much more trouble in a bridged configuration. 2) Using a single op-amp invertor is reported to be "far superior". This opinion is quite wrong, as the distortion introduced by a reasonably designed voltage follower is on the order of the distortion introduced by a voltage invertor, at MAXIMUM, if a good op-amp (and the Signetics NE5532AFE certainly qualifies) is used. Using the inversion in only one channel risks having phase problems at the output related to the phase shift (mostly transit delay, if the circuit is designed right) of the op-amp circuit. While this delay is small, the results, especially when combined with 1) above, can lead to surprising results, up to and including oscillation that would not occur with a different delay/phase shift. The problem in 1) comes about due to the fact that an amplifier's output impedence has several poles and zeros. These poles and zeros are also (not too suprisingly :->) the system poles of the amplifier. Combining the two sets of poles additively through another complex impedence (the speaker) can lead to various kinds of problems. In some amplifiers that are quite stable, the problem will be that the phase margin is reduced, leading to undamped ringing at a VERY high frequency. In a few, very well designed amps, the output impedence is nearly enough resistive (at least at frequencies less than a MHz) that combinations do not matter. good luck rabbit!jj (through allegra, harpo, or research)