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Why does bi-amping speakers sound better?

Curious why it sounds better to bi amp speakers vs just running them off one amp?

i am trying to figure out which amp to buy, I am on the fence with bi amp or not.  Speakers are the old infinity kappa 8.1's.  Several years ago when I was married I bi amped my speakers so each speaker was seeing two channels from a parasound hca1500, I think that's the model.... 200w x 2 going to each speaker.  I also tried a single amp powering both speakers so each speaker was seeing 200w x 1.  

is it that I simply doubled the power that resulted in better sound, mostly noticed the low end of the speakers was tighter, more powerful etc.... and obviously I could also play louder.  

Or is is there something about letting one amp not work as hard due to only running high frequencies while the other amp gets to just work on the low end.  

I am 90% sure which brand of amp I want to get, just trying to figure out if I should bi amp or not.

as a example should I go with

two 2 channel amps at 400w x 2 so each speaker would get 400x2

or should I go with a single 800w stereo amp so each speaker sees the same 800w, just with one channel of a amp



128x128viggen900

Showing 1 response by gregkohanmim

gregkohanmim
153 posts
 
Viggen - 

I'm currently running a D-Sonic that is a 7channel setup w/ both front speakers bi-amped and couldn't be happier.  As far as config, you can go with whatever you specify and remember, even in a 7 channel chassis, each amp is discrete as would be a mono.  

In my system, my speakers are hard to drive and go down to 2.7ohm so I'm running 2KW (4ohm) to each speaker (nautilus 800) and compared to lower-powered A/B amps I used previously the D-Sonic takes absolute control and drives these things as they were intended.

As for AC noise/ power, you obviously know already that class D amps inherently resolve that issue and this amp is 100% dead silent.  Once you get used to the fact that class D is a nonlinear pulse wave modulated architecture with incomparable immediacy (compared to class A or A/B) I think that you will be pleased.

If you end up going the D-Sonic route, my recommendation is to get the highest output modules that fit within your budget now so you can be sure that you never outgrow the amp if you ever decide to change out your speakers.

Let us know what you end up doing.

Take care

Greg
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