Can a Magnepan 1.6 be BI AMPED?

Elizabeth...
..Both the woofer and tweeter sections are 4 ohms.
..Yes, you can hook up full range signals to the woofer and tweeter input terminals (the tweeter terminals are those connected by the jumper). This will utilize the passive crossover, which I don't consider true biamping.
..If you want to biamp using an external electronic crossover you need to perform surgery on the speakers to bypass the internal passive crossovers. I don't recommend biamping these speakers because the characteristics of the internal passive crossover are a bit unusual, and hard to duplicate with an electronic crossover.

My reason for bi amping wasnt for using an external cross over to clean up the signal, it was for gaining the additional power from the 2nd channel. The above poster is correct, I cant find real world specs on the Onkyo's 4 ohm rating, but there is definitely more power in 4ohm, and it does kick the amplifier down. The Onkyo has the ability to Bi Amp using the rear 7.1 channels and outputs the same signal as the mains. Therefore you would gain double the power. I realize these arent mono channels, but most flagship receivers do ouput very close to there rated channels on the bench, even with all channels drivern. I cant say for sure I'm getting around 200 watts from the fronts and rears in 4 ohm, but it would have to be greater then the 145 watts @8ohm. I do know that this Onkyo receiver crushes my Magnepan mmgs in the 4 ohm setting. I used a Sony receiver from a few years back, and it couldnt even come near the volume the Onkyo delivered. This setup is for home theater, so I want to make sure I can handle the 1.6's with this receiver, but I think I'll be OK. Specially if the Magnepan can be biamped and the Onkyo works as it states it does. Again, I do know for sure the receiver drops down to 4 ohms, even in bi amp mode. It has a bridging mode that delivers 220 watts in 8 ohms to both front channels, but you cant go under 8 ohms, so I wont use that setting on these speakers. Being that its home theater, I'll likely cross the 1.6's over between 60-80HZ

I'll do some diggin around for some bench tests on the Onkyo 906.

This is a two way speaker, so bi-amping would be a bit silly. Feed it decent power and it will respond in kind. Biwire cables will most likely offer a nice improvement.

The new receivers don't have to follow the old FTC rules for audio gear.The more channels you drive,the less power is typical.8 ohms is the standard for home theater receivers and systems.That is why a lot of them have a external or internal switch for 4 ohms.A lot of them put a 4 ohm resister in series in the 4 ohm setting.That why a lot of people use power amps that will drive a 4 ohm speaker without the need of the resistor to take the load off of the amp.Even Onkyo's flagship Integra receiver can't give 4 ohms into all the channels.The 906 only consumes about 1152 watts total.100 of that is probably getting wasted as heat,like power amps do.By what the web says you can bi-amp the speakers.The only way to see if it does better,is by trying it.Here is a link to what is happening with a lot of receivers driving more channels.The power supply in most can't give full power at once into a lot of channels.Some rare ones do.Home Theater magazines test give you a good idea on the Onkyo 807's power.30 watts a channel times seven.Link>>[http://www.hometheatermag.com/receivers/onkyo_tx-nr807_av_receiver/index4.html]

I forgot to say,you could see they got a higher output at 4 ohms,but they only did two channels.Driving more channels into
4ohms might kick in the protection like the manual says in a round about way over long periods of time.The Maggies don't tell you when you split them if the highs are 8 ohms,and the lows are 8 ohms.They may be a little different than 8 ohms each half,but still look like they combine to 4 ohms.They wouldn't be 4 ohms each half,(that would make them 2 ohm speakers).