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[Chris Voltage]

Newbie here.  Apologies in advance if this has been asked recently. I have a Stereo board with a pair of JBL JRX115s.  Band plays classic rock, with room sizes 100 to 200 people.  Am trying to decide whether to buy a power amp with enough power to run the JBL's in stereo, or a lower powered amp bridged, running both cabs mono.   I will probably not really do any stereo imaging from the board.  Just curious if any natural ambience is lost if I decide to bridge the amp, and run them mono.

The JBLs have one speakon, and a 1/4".   In bridged, would I just connect a speakon from power amp to one JBL, then connect them together with the 1/4" inputs?

Thanks for your input.

[Tom Reid]

Chris Voltage wrote on Fri, 02 December 2005 10:11

Newbie here.  Apologies in advance if this has been asked recently. I have a Stereo board with a pair of JBL JRX115s.  Band plays classic rock, with room sizes 100 to 200 people.  Am trying to decide whether to buy a power amp with enough power to run the JBL's in stereo, or a lower powered amp bridged, running both cabs mono.   I will probably not really do any stereo imaging from the board.  Just curious if any natural ambience is lost if I decide to bridge the amp, and run them mono. The JBLs have one speakon, and a 1/4".   In bridged, would I just connect a speakon from power amp to one JBL, then connect them together with the 1/4" inputs? Thanks for your input.

Look up.
On the right hand side of this site there is a search gui.
Search for stereo vs. mono and you'll see we kibbitz about this subject almost every 3 months.

I do stereo because I've got enough gear to do stereo.
Other respectable soundguys around here only run mono.
Old Sound Man prefers Zoned Mono.
Each method has advantages and drawbacks.
So the proper answer is "it depends"

tom

[Ryan Garnett]

Buy a larger amp and run stereo, something like a RMX1450-1850 or a PLX 1602-2402. That way down the road if you decide you want something larger ... say the JRX125's ... you'll have an amp with enough power at 4 ohms to power these cabs as well. Just leaves room for expansion.

[Evan Kirkendall]

Ryan G. wrote on Fri, 02 December 2005 11:40

Buy a larger amp and run stereo, something like a RMX1450-1850 or a PLX 1602-2402. That way down the road if you decide you want something larger ... say the JRX125's ... you'll have an amp with enough power at 4 ohms to power these cabs as well. Just leaves room for expansion.

RMX1450, 1850 and the PLX1602 dont have enough power @ 8ohms stereo. They want 500w program. So, going stereo you'd need a PLX2402 or RMX2450.

I run mono. Ive got an rmx1450 bridged into my JRX's. Gives em each 700w. Just a little over 500, but it gives me needed headroom.

Then, in the future when you upgrade(if you do) you can put the RMX on monitor duty or something.

Evan

[Ryan Garnett]

Evan Kirkendall wrote on Fri, 02 December 2005 20:29

Ryan G. wrote on Fri, 02 December 2005 11:40 Buy a larger amp and run stereo, something like a RMX1450-1850 or a PLX 1602-2402. That way down the road if you decide you want something larger ... say the JRX125's ... you'll have an amp with enough power at 4 ohms to power these cabs as well. Just leaves room for expansion. RMX1450, 1850 and the PLX1602 dont have enough power @ 8ohms stereo. They want 500w program. So, going stereo you'd need a PLX2402 or RMX2450. I run mono. Ive got an rmx1450 bridged into my JRX's. Gives em each 700w. Just a little over 500, but it gives me needed headroom. Then, in the future when you upgrade(if you do) you can put the RMX on monitor duty or something. Evan

I have an RMX1850 and a set of TR125's and JRX125's as well. The RMX drives both sets quite well...I could see needing a little more headroom on the JRX's but I'm looking at a PLX2402 in the near future...but for the TR's it's plenty.

[Scott Van Den Elzen]

90+% of the time I run mono.  That being said, I always carry what I would need to run stereo.  (I actually set up stereo most of the time, but usually just don't mix anything in stereo.)  The times when I actually use stereo have been twofold:

1.  A band has a good keys player, with a good keyboard that runs stereo. In this situation, it adds a lot to the mix to use both channels off the keys.
2.  Hip-hop acts.  Their tracks often use stereo effects, and they're paying me to reproduce those effects in the room.

If you're completely confident you will NEVER run into a situation where stereo will be beneficial/needed, (Does your band ever work with other bands that may have a need for stereo?) then you could save a couple bucks.  I've made enough mistakes by now, though, trying to save a few pennies.  If it were my money, I'd buy the added flexibility and expandability of a system capable of stereo.