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Am I wasting money on the theory of Bi-amping?

As a long time audiophile I'm finally able to bi-amp my setup. I'm using two identical amps in a vertical bi-amp configuration. 
 

Now me not fully understanding all of the ins/outs of internal speaker crossovers and what not. I've read quite a few people tell me that bi-amping like I'm doing whether it's vertical or horizontal bi-amping is a waste since there's really not a improvement because of how speaker manufacturers design the internal crossovers. 
 

Can anyone explain to a third grader how it's beneficial or if the naysayers are correct in the statement?

ibisghost
britamerican
52 posts
 

Depends on amps and speakers.

If you have a 3 or more way where only fairly deep bass can be isolated to one amp, maybe. I think you would need to be pushing your system hard for it to matter.

ibisghost OP
15 posts
 

I have two NAD M23 amps and speakers are Paradigm Founders 100F. 
 

I am using them in a vertical bi-amp configuration. 
 

I have four subwoofers handling the very low end. So the amplifier shouldn't be stressing out in any way. Even when I had just the one M23 amp connected using both speakers it sounded phenomenal. That's when I decided I wanted two. I loved it!
 

The amps can be bridged but I felt this could degrade the quality of the amp and chose the buying of two amps instead kind of like a monoblock setup. I've usually used monoblock amps for my system but NAD doesn't make a monoblock amp in this M23, even though it can be bridged I just felt bridging could degrade the quality l heard when connected in two channel. 
 

I've never tried bridging these amps but based upon Audioholics testing said it did kind of decrease the quality over running two channel mode.   
 

I'm just trying to learn more and appreciate the feedback knowledge!

ozzy's avatar
ozzy
7,423 posts
 

So, will you be using Y adapters to connect to the 2 Amps?

ozzy

Post removed 
ibisghost OP
15 posts
 

Yes. I have XLR Y-cable splitters. It comes out of my preamp splits the channel and then each of those goes to a channel on the amp. 
 

My preamp (Marantz 8805A) has a bi-amp mode in the setup menu that allows me to use another channel for bi-amping. They claim setting it up this way and I'll quote from their explanation: 

FROM MARANTZ

"This connection enables back EMF (power returned without being output) from the woofer to flow into the tweeter without affecting the sound quality, producing a higher sound quality."

But for some reason unknown to me when I use this method of connecting my XLR cables and run a level test in the setup menu. When the left speaker is putting out a test tone I'm getting both main speakers playing at the same time the high frequencies and when I switch to the right speaker I get both the main speakers low frequencies playing at the same time. Not sure if Marantz implemented something wrong here or not but I don't understand it all. So I connected back the XLR splitters. 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

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