Is it best to use a 5-channel amp for biamping??

Thanks everyone for your response. I think Arthursmuck understand what I am trying to do. I am sorry I did not mention what speakers I want to biamp. I have the ML SL3, which are design for bi-amping.

I am trying to decide which Sunfire amp I should get:
The 5-channel cinema grand or the 300W two channel.

It seems to me that I might get more out of my SL3 if I use the 4 channels of the Sunfire cinema grand in a bi-amp configuration (two channels per speaker). Has anyone use a 5-channel amp to biamping this way?

Thanks

I hate to say that anything is an absolute as there are almost always exceptions to every rule. With that in mind, it would be pretty safe to assume that you should be "okay" even with goofy internal wiring in the speaker so long as you were running multiple channels from the same amp. There are some amp designs that i can think of this causing problems with, but none of the multi-channels that i know of use this approach.

As a side note, i did this for a while when the two channel amp that i use for the mains in my HT system was sent back to the manufacturer for inspection and upgrades. I had another 5 channel amp that i wasn't using, so i ran four of its' channels to passively bi-amp the mains with. Since it was from the same manufacturer, there wasn't a drastic change in sonics either way. Sean
>

No, no, Arthur-- you'll use FOUR of those channels to bi-amp: one channel for the right woof, another for the left woof, another for the right mid-hi's and another for the left mid-hi's. Total, four.
The difference in sonics comes from driving the speakers' drive units directly, the crossover being behind the amps rather than in front. Cheers

Greg,

What do you mean by this statement..."The difference in sonics comes from driving the speakers' drive units directly, the crossover being behind the amps rather than in front"?

Are you implying that a 5-channel biamp configuration will be sonically better than a straight 2-channel instal?

Cheers