Benchmark AHB2 - To 'mono' or not to 'mono'

@georgehifi - Well, George, your post on the other thread was what made me start to question whether I should go the bridged mono route! I've seen posts by others that stated that going bridged mono was awesome, or words to that effect.

(Now, I read these discussions regularly and mostly lurk, lacking anything worthwhile to add - and I avoid the flame wars about cables and such, but... ) I know there's a significant amount of experience represented by quite a few of the people who post here. So I started the thread hoping for some good advice, and really appreciate yours. No point in spending money (or spending it wrongly) on improvements that really aren't.

What George said, bridging doesn't improve the sound quality, it just gives you more power for higher SPL, but it reduces the amp ability to drive low impedances.

Do you see the clipping leds on the AHB2 constantly flashing? If not, there's no need for more power.

Actually you might perceive an increase in dynamics with 2 amps bridged, not due to more power but due to the decreased damping factor of the amp.

A lower damping factor will make the amp sound less tight and it may give you a slight bass bump at the speaker resonance frequency.

Since the Pulsars are an easy load there's no harm in trying.

wwoodrum OP
mrdecibel
seigen

What I will also add, if one amp has enough power to easily drive said speaker, you can gain extra dynamics and more bass grunt without losing quality by what I said before. To vertically passive bi-amp two stereo amps (linked).
What happens then is all the bass power from the power supply from one amp, has it available to just that one bass driver, of the channel it's hooked up to. The other has the same. 
So you can get better sound with two amps, (just not in bridged mode.)
  http://www.av2day.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/biamp2.jpg

Cheers George

I have seen the amp clip at what I thought should have been a reasonable volume, but only on a very demanding recording - Steely Dan's 'Gaslighting Abby' from "Two Against Nature." But just that once and so I'm not too concerned in that respect. 

In general, I'm extremely happy with the performance of the amp and the Pulsars together, and I don't want for the ability to create more loudness in my listening room with most of what I listen to. Maybe I should just leave well enough alone until I'm ready to invest in some nice neutral-sounding mono-block amps with more horsepower. If I had the second amp, I'd go with George's advice and try bridging too, to see what my ears tell me. Since I don't, it seems like the money I'd spend on the second amp would be better spent in other ways.

Thank you all.