35W x 2 voice coils vs. 35W bridged to on coil?

[10-SE]

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Which is more power or better? 2 35W channels driving 2 voice coils of a sub vs. 2 35W channels bridged to a single channel driving a single voice coil?

I have a situation where I am obligated to use 1 or 2 channels of a 12 channel x 35W amp to power an 8" ceiling sub that has dual voice coils. It's for background music, not movies.

Here are 3 options:

1. I can send 2 35W (8ohm) channels to each 8 ohm voice coil of the sub.

2. I can bridge the 2 35W channels to go to one of the voice coils.

3. I can set the amp to a 4 ohm load and send one of the channels: 35W (@ 55W at 4ohm) to the 2 paralleled voice coils.

Per channel, the amp allows switching between 4 or 8 ohm loads (8 ohms only bridged). Per channel, the amp allows switching input signal R or L or R+L (summed)

I have not tried any other config yet besides option 1. I did test a car sub's output by removing the second set of voice coil leads and I could not hear a drop. But I would assume that 2 voice coils would double the drive of a speaker, compared to a bridged config that would increase energy by only a third.

????
Thanks

[Jim Shearer]

I could be wrong, but it looks to me like option 1 is clearly the best. Option 2 is a non-starter, as you don't want to limit the sub to using only one voice coil. Option 3 gets you less power & is harder on the amp than option 1.

Cheers, Jim

[busterapco]

I recently was doing the same thing. So long as your speaker can handle a 4? then it by far sounds the best. I would, because I love sound, do option #3. You can beat the crap out of the amp and enjoy till it dies! My grand pa once told me about a guy in 1901 who lived in the dark because he did not want to waste his candles. After talking to him I realized they only remember him as a person that lived in the dark. Use it for all its worth because tomorrow its not going to be worth as much.