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Carvin R600

bassicallybob

bassicallybob

Guest
Jun 6, 2018
62
51
Minneapolis, MN
#1
Have a really great deal on picking up a carvin r600 for only $100, in good working condition. A good friend of mine just wants to get rid of it, and I'm in desperate need.

My only concern is the impedance of the amp, for whatever reason carvin has a lot of options on almost all their amps. I run a SA 2x10 4ohm cabinet, and the carvin has only one option for 4ohm cabinets, under a bridged option. Can I use the bridge function if I'm only using one cabinet? There are two inputs and I'm nervous that it's expecting 2 and i'll screw something up. Thanks!
 
#2
I think you've got a couple things confused here. The amp won't be "expecting" two speakers, or any number really. The critical thing to think about is the impedance of the load you're presenting to it. What that bridged option is telling you is that if you do bridge the amp, you shouldn't present it with a total load lower than 4 ohms (it would be OK to present a load higher than 4 ohms; you'd just get less maximum power available). It doesn't matter whether that 4 ohm load consists of a single 4 ohm speaker or two 8 ohm speakers daisy-chained or even four 16 ohm speakers daisy-chained. Just don't give the amp, say, a 2 ohm load when it's in bridge mode.

You can also plug your speaker into just one side of this amp, without a speaker in the other side. That's safe, if you're OK on impedance. Depending on whether the amp is a Series I, II, or II, each side may be rated as stable down to 2 ohms, so it would be perfectly OK to use a 4 ohm speaker. Just make sure the amp is set to full range rather than biamp; otherwise, when you plug into just one side, you'll get either only bass or only treble.

See if you can figure out what series your R600 is. Then download the appropriate manual here: Bass Amplifier Manuals
 
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#3
Yes, follow the bridge mode operation in the manual. I would also be careful as 600 watts RMS into your 210 is enough powr to cause damage.

You can run only a single 4 ohm cabinet in bridge mode, though there may be older versions that can not suppprt bridged mode into 4 ohms so you need to verify your specific model.
 
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#5
agedhorse said:
You can run only a single 4 ohm cabinet in bridge mode, though there may be older versions that can not suppprt bridged mode into 4 ohms so you need to verify your specific model.
Click to expand...

I don't have the series number, but from the picture I was sent, the bridge option on the rear of the amp does state "min load 4 ohms"

So I should be good then?

Also, I'm aware my cabinet is only good for 400w continuous, I don't plan on cranking the head past 5 o'clock.
 
#6
bassicallybob said:
By "full range" you mean bridged, correct?

Thank you for the clarifications on everything. I've been playing quite some time, but always stuck to more simplistic setups.
Click to expand...

No, they're two different things. Full range is contrasted with biamping. That amp has two "sides" to it. Biamping means you split the signal so that the higher frequencies come out one side of the amp and the lower frequencies come out the other. You would only want to use this if you had two cabs, with one presumably better suited to lows and the other to highs. Full range means that all frequencies, both low and high, are coming out each side of the amp. This is what you need to use if you're plugging a single cab into one side or the other.

Bridging is contrasted with using the two sides of the amp separately. It basically means that the two sides of the amp are squished together into a single mono amp (sorry, other folks could give you a better, more accurate explanation). This renders the whole biamp thing irrelevant: when you only have one "output stream," so to speak, it's impossible to split the output into a high stream and a low stream. You bridge when you want to get more power out of the amp into a single speaker--or, better to say, a single load (as I said, a 4 ohm load could be made up of two 8 ohm cabs linked in parallel). That's both a benefit and a risk: you get more power, but if your cab can't handle that, you might be more likely to damage it.

In whatever mode you use the amp, you must be careful not to present it with too low a load.
 
#7
Richard Lindsey said:
No, they're two different things. Full range is contrasted with biamping. That amp has two "sides" to it. Biamping means you split the signal so that the higher frequencies come out one side of the amp and the lower frequencies come out the other. You would only want to use this if you had two cabs, with one presumably better suited to lows and the other to highs. Full range means that all frequencies, both low and high, are coming out each side of the amp. This is what you need to use if you're plugging a single cab into one side or the other.

Bridging is contrasted with using the two sides of the amp separately. It basically means that the two sides of the amp are squished together into a single mono amp (sorry, other folks could give you a better, more accurate explanation). This renders the whole biamp thing irrelevant: when you only have one "output stream," so to speak, it's impossible to split the output into a high stream and a low stream. You bridge when you want to get more power out of the amp into a single speaker--or, better to say, a single load (as I said, a 4 ohm load could be made up of two 8 ohm cabs linked in parallel). That's both a benefit and a risk: you get more power, but if your cab can't handle that, you might be more likely to damage it.

In whatever mode you use the amp, you must be careful not to present it with too low a load.
Click to expand...

Im curious how I implement full range in that case? The only outputs that aren't in the bridged area state an 8ohm minimum I believe.
 
#8
bassicallybob said:
I don't have the series number, but from the picture I was sent, the bridge option on the rear of the amp does state "min load 4 ohms"

So I should be good then?

Also, I'm aware my cabinet is only good for 400w continuous, I don't plan on cranking the head past 5 o'clock.
Click to expand...
You should be OK in terms of load. In terms of power handling, be aware that keeping the volume at a certain setting does NOT guarantee that you won't make the amp put out its maximum power at some point. That might even be manageable for brief peaks, though. Listen to your speaker and see if you notice any signs of distress.

One other thing to keep in mind. I used to have an R600, and mine was not very tolerant of really low loads. Speaker impedance is not an absolutely constant thing over all frequencies under all circumstances. IOW, 4 ohms is not always 4 ohms all of the time. If your cab is one that dips much below 4 ohms much of the time, the amp may shut down. Mine did with a brand new 4 ohm Acme B4. if that happens, the answer is to run the cab off just one side of the amp (ie, NOT using the bridged output) in full range mode. You'll get less power output, but it should be safer.
 
#12
if an amplifier states that it is happy with a 4Ω bridged load it has to be safe at 2Ω per channel. You do not need to run the amp bridged. All of my amps are bridgeable but I have never seen the reason to run them so - it releases too much power.

What I call my bass amp, a pre/power set up, drives one of my 4Ω cabinets on each side for 500W into each. That’s plenty for any gig I have ever played.
 
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#13
BassmanPaul said:
if an amplifier states that it is happy with a 4Ω bridged load it has to be safe at 2Ω per channel. You do not need to run the amp bridged. All of my amps are bridgeable but I have never seen the reason to run them so - it releases too much power.

What I call my bass amp, a pre/power set up, drives one of my 4Ω cabinets on each side for 500W into each. That’s plenty for any gig I have ever played.
Click to expand...

The only reason I'm looking to bridge is the fact the amp is only good to 250w @ 4ohms without bridging. That *should* be enough for most settings, but certainly not all, especially a particularly loud rehearsal space.
 
#20
r600Rear.jpg
 
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