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Q Will I damage a stereo amplifier by using it to amplify only one channel—in this case, my system’s center speaker?—Richard Regan

A No, but there are conditions. Depending on the capabilities of your amplifier, you'll have several options to work with. The first, and easiest, is to use only a single channel of the stereo amp to power your center speaker. Just run the mono center channel output of your preamp to the amp’s right or left channel input and connect the speaker to its corresponding output.

The second is to biamp the speaker, an option that could result in better sound. First, remove the jumpers that connect the two sets of inputs on the speaker’s back panel. Next, using a Y adapter, split your preamp’s center channel output between the amp’s left and right inputs and then use its left/right outputs to separately drive the speaker’s tweeter and midrange/woofer sections.

The last option, and this one will depend entirely on the features provided on your stereo amp, is to bridge the two channels to a single mono channel. With this method, you can increase the amp’s per-channel power output. But you’ll need use a model that has a Bridged Mode option—Bryston’s 2.5BSST² for example—otherwise you may damage the amp.