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i have a 200 watt power mixing amp. instructions state i can BRIDGE the amp and double my power output. how do i do this??

Some amps have different ways to do so - read your instructions or the manual.  

Usually it takes the 2 positives from both channels, some have special settings that need to be adjusted, some have a dedicated bridge output.  What make & model is the amp.

You also have to be careful that your speaker load won't be too low for it in bridge mode, you can actually fry your amp & possibly speakers if it isn't correctly rated for the speaker load.

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my amp is a legions sound model LS8. it has a single !/4 line output stating BRIDGED. speakers are peavey SP5G with a peak of 1000 watts, 500 programable and 250 continuous.

lonman..thanks for the interest...the manual states only it is bridging capable but no printed procedure to do so. as i said before there is an output for speakers and a switch on the front with main-main, main-monitor, bridged.

Only info I can find on that is they are made by Madison, not going to get into the quality of Madison products.  So i'm not going to speculate on how to bridge your amp, there are a few different ways & the wrong way will blow the amp.  I will say that if it only puts out 200 watts - is that 200 watts per channel or 100 watts per channel & collectively called 200 watts?  Either way, that amp is WAY underpowered for those Peavey speakers.  The amp should be pushing 500 watts per channel into 8 ohms for them to sound & operate their best.  Even in bridged mode, you would be putting both speakers on the same output which would drop their ohms to 4 thus they would need an amp that pushed 1000 watts into 4 ohms, even if your amp is rated at 200 watts per channel, the bridged mode would be about 400 watts & it may not be bridgeable into 4 ohms - again, big chance to blow the amp.  You may want to consider an amp upgrade honestly.

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Yes, also, when you bridge the amp, you are not getting MORE power, you are summing the two internal amps into one power stream. For example, if your mixing amp is 200 watts/channel into 8 ohms, then bridging it is going to give you 400 watts into ONE channel at 8 ohms. You are not getting MORE power, you are simply taking the 400 watts that are usually fed to two speakers and feeding it all to one speaker.

As Lonman stated, this doesn't solve your problem of having an amp that is way too small for your speakers. Even bridged, your amp doesn't push the program rating of ONE speaker, let alone two. Get a new amp!!

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C Mc
KJ, FL

If you do want to use the amp in bridged mode, just turn the selector to BRIDGE then stick your speaker output into the single input labeled BRIDGE and that one speaker will then be getting the full 400 watts.

At least you can feed 400 watts to one of your speakers and see what a big difference it makes to drive the speaker closer to where it is actually designed to be.

You could actually be doing damage to your speakers by underpowering them so much, however. You really should go out and buy an amp that is rated to 500 watts/channel at 8 ohms, which is what your speaker specs call for.

The Peavey CS 2000 is taylor made for those speakers:

http://www.americanmusical.com/item--i- ... 0_989.html

Here are some more economical options:

http://www.americanmusical.com/item--i- ... 0_988.html

http://www.americanmusical.com/item--i- ... 0_995.html

http://www.americanmusical.com/item--i- ... 0_999.html

http://www.americanmusical.com/Item--i- ... --d-2.html

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C Mc
KJ, FL