If bi-amping is so great, why do some high end speakers not support it?


I’m sure a number of you have much more technical knowledge than I. so I’m wondering: a lot of people stress the value of bi-amping. My speakers (B&W CM9, and Monitor Audio PL100II) both offer the option. I use it on the Monitors, and I think it helps.

But I’ve noticed many speakers upward of $5k, and some more than $50k (e.g., some of Magico) aren’t set up for it.

Am I missing something? Or is this just one of the issues on which there are very different opinions with no way to settle the disagreement?

Thanks folks…


rsgottlieb
''If bi-amping is so great, why do some high end speakers not support it? 

Very simple.
Manufacturers building bi/tri-amp speakers if lucky, perhaps, will sell 10 pair per year the most.

Really? Monitor audio sells a lot more than that--I think all their high end have 4 binding posts.

Adding (a) powered sub(s) with built-in x/o filters IS a form of bi-amping, but doing so does NOT replace the speaker-level x/o, which is left in place to divide the signal for the speakers’ (not the subs’) woofers vs. tweeters.

There has been mention here of digital active x/o’s, but there are still analog x/o’s available, for anyone not wishing to turn his LP’s, 78’s, 45’s, tapes, and FM signal into digits. Two reasonably-priced good ones are made by Marchand and First Watt (Nelson Pass), both around a grand. Bi-amping works only with speakers designed to be so used---Maggie 20.1’s, for example, are, 20.7’s are not (just as 3.6’s are and 3.7’s are not, same with 1.6’s vs. 1.7’s).

The pre-.7 Maggies can be bi-amped using an active electronic x/o because their stock speaker-level x/o's are textbook parallel designs, easily duplicated by an outboard x/o. The .7 speakers have series x/o, not so easily duplicated. Any speaker having corrective filters (Zobel networks, to correct for any driver misbehavior) also make bi-amping complicated.

One reason bi-amping can improve the sound of a speaker that has not been mentioned here (I don't believe), is that powering each driver with a separate, dedicated amp prevents the back-emf (electro-magnetic force) that a woofer sends back to the amp powering it can not reach the tweeter (in a 2-way loudspeaker). The advantage of that arrangement should be obvious!

My current speakers, Sonist Recital 3s, sound MUCH better biwired, my previous speakers, Silverline Preludes, did not. I discovered this (with the Preludes anyway) after talking to the designer, Alan Yun, who said the Preludes would be "more coherant" single wired…he was right. Biamped (or even tramped) "active" speakers can sound astonishingly good if well designed, and I've used various forms of those in pro audio and studio work, but prefer (for live sound anyway) passive speakers when I have the choice due to field problem solving ease if something goes out. Note that not only are RCAs used in pro stuff, but 1/4" phone plugs are everywhere…strange but true…although I prefer XLRs and Neutrik Speakon plugs whenever appropriate.