center channel

getz]I wrote:

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bridged it over my front two channels coming off of the radio.Taking the negative from the front left, and the positive from the front right.

They are saying that the impedeance is now 2ohms, and will cause my head unit to fry. I know this is not true, as the radio is still being presented with a 4 ohm load.

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Um.  You probably won't have ur head unit for long. 

They correct - you are presenting your head unit - designed to run 4-ohm ONLY - with a 2-ohm per channel load.  This will, in all likelyhood, damage/destroy ur head unit at some point in the near future.

getz] wrote:

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does anyone see anything inherently wrong with the way I setup the speaker. Once again, I realize the radio is working a little harder, but I do not see this causing my radio to go up in smoke

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Well you won't see it go up in smoke, as u'll be shorting an integrated circuit instead of a coil - it'll prolly just shutoff - permanently - at some point in the very near future.

You should disconnect that speaker dude.

getz]I wrote:

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drive a Saturn...commence insults

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Insults?  At $4.50/gallon?  Looks like you CAN make good choices. . . .

With proper installation of the front speakers, this ghetto 'center channel' will not be needed.

Since you are powering your other speakers with an amplifier, if the only speaker connected to your head unit is the center channel speaker, your radio will be fine.  On your radio each channel acts as a bridged amplifier connection.  On a 2 channel bridgeable amplifier, there are 4 terminals.  The 2 terminals that are not used to bridge the amp.  Usually the left negative and the right positive are connected together.  They are essentially the ground for that channel.  The left positive and the right negative wires have audio signal on them.  The right channel is electronically inverted (180 degrees out of phase with the left channel).  So when you bridge an amp there is now voltage on both the positive and the negative wire.  Bridging a 2 channel amp into a 4 ohm load is the same as having each channel running into a 2 ohm load.  2 ohm left plus 2 ohm right = 4 ohms across the amp.  Same as a 4 ohm mono load. 

Your radio just as the bridged amp has voltage on both the positive and negative wires.  Essentially your radio has 4 bridged amplifiers built into it.  So if you use one wire from front left and the opposite wire from the front right, your radio output chip will be fine as long as you do not have any other speakers connected to the front channels.      But as JMelton stated above it will probably be ghetto.    For a center channel speaker to work properly, special decoding in needed to tell the speaker what to play.  Stereo means 2 separate channels, one left and one right.  That is where you get stereo separation.  With the center speaker basically being a mix of the left and right channels, I really think it will do major harm to your sound quality. 

i am an idiot wrote:

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Since you are powering your other speakers with an amplifier, if the only speaker connected to your head unit is the center channel speaker, your radio will be fine.  On your radio each channel acts as a bridged amplifier connection.  On a 2 channel bridgeable amplifier, there are 4 terminals.  The 2 terminals that are not used to bridge the amp.  Usually the left negative and the right positive are connected together.  They are essentially the ground for that channel.  The left positive and the right negative wires have audio signal on them.  The right channel is electronically inverted (180 degrees out of phase with the left channel).  So when you bridge an amp there is now voltage on both the positive and the negative wire.  Bridging a 2 channel amp into a 4 ohm load is the same as having each channel running into a 2 ohm load.  2 ohm left plus 2 ohm right = 4 ohms across the amp.  Same as a 4 ohm mono load. 

Your radio just as the bridged amp has voltage on both the positive and negative wires.  Essentially your radio has 4 bridged amplifiers built into it.  So if you use one wire from front left and the opposite wire from the front right, your radio output chip will be fine as long as you do not have any other speakers connected to the front channels.      But as JMelton stated above it will probably be ghetto.    For a center channel speaker to work properly, special decoding in needed to tell the speaker what to play.  Stereo means 2 separate channels, one left and one right.  That is where you get stereo separation.  With the center speaker basically being a mix of the left and right channels, I really think it will do major harm to your sound quality. 

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