Why use a monobloc?

[sungwei 10+ year member]

Ok, I gotta admit I'm not even sure what a monoblock amp is. My best guess is a single channel amp dedicated to a subwoofer. Now why is it that people here say that it is better to use a monoblock for a sub as oppose to bridging two channels together? Isn't it the same thing (if same power output)? I will have a 2x100 and 1x200 3 channel amp. How would this be different from having a monoblock putting out 200watts power the sub? Please explain advantages and disadvantages.

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[Moe Lester 10+ year member]

I believe that when you bridge an amp, the THD increases. It may or may not be noticable though. A monoblock amp is exactly what you guessed, dedicated sub amp. A Class D sub amp is more efficient than a AB 2 channel or whatever, and will most likely have a lower THD compared to a bridged amp. Hopefully ive got this right.. lol im still pretty new to this stuff

 

[gxz 10+ year member]

when you have a monoblock amp, you dont have to worry about setting different gains and crossovers on different amps, (or on some amps,) on different channels

 

[sungwei 10+ year member]

So is it more of a sound quality issue or ease of set up issue? ... Good info though so far.

 

[nosaj070 10+ year member]

Many times two channel amps can not be wired to 2 ohm mono, while Mono amps can usually be wired to 2 or 1 mono,so that eliminates a lot of options. Like mentioned class d are more efficient, and well basically thats it.

 

[80_Cutlass_mn 10+ year member]

To sum it all up, the advantages are wiring flexibility and efficiency as nosaj070 said.

 

[n2audio 5,000+ posts]

if you're talking about 200w there really aren't any advantages to going class D.

It's when you get up over 500 that efficiency begins to make a difference. Plus, if you need 1000 watts it's almost always more cost effective to go class D.

 

[nosaj070 10+ year member]

if you're talking about 200w there really aren't any advantages to going class D.
It's when you get up over 500 that efficiency begins to make a difference. Plus, if you need 1000 watts it's almost always more cost effective to go class D.

Yeah, but most mono's usually have more stability at lower ohm loads, so thats basically all I can think of.