Gain and level controls on an amplifier-a good thing?

I am not using a bi-amp setup. Simply using two sets of speakers with each pair powered by a different amp. They share the same preamp. 

That is unlike most others here..

But like others here, I have a separate 2-channel setup from my AV setup, so we still have a lot in common!

Does anyone bi-amp anymore? Maybe that is a bit off topic but an interesting one when it comes to gain control...in theory one would have a true treble and bass control through gain settings, right?

@goodlistening64 

You have a lovely basement space and the point of egress with those double doors is very interesting I guess you don't have any water issues. 
 

@emergingsoul 

Thanks! No water issues yet but the doors (threshold) needs to be replaced. Not going to be cheap..

I’ve tried bi-amping a few times now, and even with the SAME two stereo amps I end up with a nagging feeling it’s robbing some of the musical coherence. Always end up going back to a single stereo amp in those cases. That was with solid-state amps, and horizontal bi-amping. I’ve also (briefly) tried with vertical bi-amp, and just felt there wasn’t much of an improvement to justify the expense.

Also tried bi-amping briefly on VAC tube amps - again same 2 amps each swappable from mono/stereo mode - and mono mode was so much better there was no point to stereo biamp.

If the 2 stereo amps are different, you would absolutely need gain controls (at least on the higher gain one) to match them, but even THEN I have to guess I wouldn’t like the result based on prior experience. So I think the problem boils down to: bi-amping with 2 of the same stereo amp doesn’t justify the 2x cost. bi-amping with 2 different amp is a Frankenstein approach, and you should just buy a single better amp.

I’ve had the Parasound Halo amps before (A23, A21, JC1) and the dual gain pots are nice to offset any L/R channel imbalance you have in your system. BUT that issue bugs me so much I prefer to address it in other ways (find the problem and fix it). But if the imbalance is due to acoustics (asymmetric room), THAT is hard to resolve and the dual gain pots could be your savior. 

@mulveling

Amazing looking system you have and that alpine height turntable is really cool. I was thinking about Vac a while back. But incorporating it into the home theatre environment didn’t seem right.

For biamping I am trying tubes and solid state and the results are very good. I’m trying out mc901s and it is achieving what I was pursuing. Being able to change the gain controls it's definitely necessary. I'm not sure if it interferes with signal path quality all that much although it is a concern.