2. speakers
  3. 130092-88016

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…


128x128rsgottlieb
sqlsavior
46 posts
 
"If bi-amping is so great, why do some high end speakers not support it?"

Because their designers are not confident in the engineering skills of their customers.
kalali's avatar
kalali
1,977 posts
 
In the manual for my new (to me) Vandersteen 2Ci speakers, their recommended version of (vertical) bi-amping is using two stereo amplifiers each driving one speaker with the left output driving the tweeter/midrange and the right connected to the bass. Maybe this is common but I'd not seen this sort of configuration before.
zimmerma's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
zimmerma
102 posts
 
"Hypocrisy"


ctsooner
2,480 posts
 
Kalali, You can go to the Ask Ricard part of their site and ask your question there. I have heard it set up this way with NAD amps as well as Belles amps and boy does it make a nice difference.  You can really get a lot of high end sound out of those 2Ci's.  I've heard them run with my Ayre AX5/20 integrated and it really showed off what they can do.  There is a reason it's the best selling speaker of all time for the high end.  Fanboy here, lol.
lewinskih01
909 posts
 
@kalali 
The benefit of doing that is the speaker cables are kept shortest, while one channel will be a lot more demanded that the other one just because of power draw for each band.

Alternatively, using the same two stereo amps, one for L and R bass and the other for the top will give a balanced draw for both channels at each amp at the expense of longer speaker cables.
More to discover