2. speakers
  3. 179552-78550

Should I bi-amp or bridge my amps to feed my speakers

I have an older pair of Audio Physics, they have woofers on each side and a mid and tweeter on the front. I have (2) identical tube amps running in triode mode at 35 watts each. I was thinking to bi-amp the woofers on one amp and mids, tweets on the other. Wonder if anyone here has experience with this? Any advice or input is appreciated..

kellymack
elliottbnewcombjr
5,547 posts
 

I vote for adding SS amp good for high current for the woofers; use the tubes as mono blocks for the tweets/mids

kellymack OP
19 posts
 

I should have mentioned the tube amps are in stereo they’re  HK citation 2’s. They have both been rebuilt. Also speakers are Virgo's the first series 4 ohm. Soix got it right!!

i have considered a small sub woofer, but haven’t made a move on it. 

mesch
3,520 posts
 

In your situation you could use one amp for the woofers and one for the mid/treble or you could  use a single amp each for the L and R speaker.  I would try both ways. 

Bridging allows for greater watts at the expense of current. Not good for low impedance speakers. 

I would be concerned about the power compatibility of those amps with that speaker even using both amps. What is size of room? 

 

 

mulveling's avatar
mulveling
1,939 posts
 

Which amp were you planning to bridge? Stereo tube amps aren’t usually bridged; their sides are run in parallel for mono. My VAC 200iQ tube amps are like this, and it results in a huge upgrade in performance (at the cost of 2 amps versus 1). I’ve tried bridging a SS amp I really love (Phison A2.120SE), and it honestly sounds better in stereo mode. Bridging is much more tricky, and more likely to degrade sonic performance for the extra power.

I tried bi-amping instead of bridging SS amps, and that was fun but nothing life changing. Tried both vertical and horizontal bi-amp. You need identical amps for vertical, and (at least) gain matching for horizontal. I simply still prefer to run that amp in stereo (single amp). Biggest difference I’ve heard so far was running the tube amps in mono/parallel mode (haven’t tried bi-amping them).

ditusa's avatar
ditusa
1,897 posts
 

@kellymack,

Should I bi-amp or bridge my amps to feed my speakers

I would bi-amp. That said it should not be undertaken without first asking the manufacturer’s advice.

When I horizontally bi-amped my speakers with an analog active crossover design by the same manufacturer (of the speakers) it brought my speakers three notches above the passive crossover in sound quality. 😎

Mike

See Active Vs. Passive Crossovers (sound-au.com)

More to discover