Two integrated's for bi-amping?


I have a Musical Fidelity X-A1 integrated amplifier running Castle Acoustic Isis speakers. I originally planned to bi-amp with MF X-A50's but have been unable to locate a pair, plus they are a stretch on my budget. What if I picked up another X-A1 and used one integrated for each channel? My concerns are as follows, and I have no previous experience with this type of setup. I would have to use some type of "Y" cable or splitter from ex. the left out of the CD player to both the left and right inputs on one of the integrated amps. Would this "Y" degrade the sound quality, and to what extent? My second concern is bi-amping in general without using an external active crossover (not in the budget now, but maybe way down the line.) I would be using the internal passive crossover in the Isis speakers. Will this type of bi-amping be worth the added expense (sound wise)? I am very happy with the sonic signature of the MF amp, especially at lower volume levels where it runs primarily in class A. I am looking for a slight increase in volume while still running in class A and hopefully an increase in dynamics with this setup. If it helps the rest of the gear is: Cal Icon MkII CD, Monster 2000 HTS2000 conditioner, Kimber 4VS speaker cable, and Radio Shack Gold interconnect (yes I know, please be kind). Your comments and insight will be greatly appreciated. I sold all of my hifi gear in the mid 80's and am just getting back into the swing of things (CD's are new to me as a source). I am once again enjoying that old feeling of being constantly dissapointed with my system except for the occasional passage of beautiful sounding music.
128x128dekay
Dekay you ideally should try to get MF X-AS100 amp and connect to X-A1 integrated using preamp out RCAs of X-A1. Use the X-A1 to drive the treble and X-AS100 to drive the bass of bi-wire speakers. You need two pairs of speaker cable for this passive bi-amp setup, results are big improvement detail, control and power. I own many MF products, If you e-mail your address I can mail you copy of article last year from What HiFi mag where they did all kinds of bi-amp and tri-amping using various MF X series amps, Sam
I agree. If you bi-amp with an integrated, use the same version in a power amp as the other amp. For example with the Rotel RA971 Integrated use the RB971 Power amp.
Dear Sam, I am also bi-amping my B&W 801 with solid state to bass and tube puss-pull monos to mid/highs. I have mainly great result. I put a passive pot to reduce the solid state signal level to match the signal levels of 3 amps. Problem is I am never sure if the pot was adjusted accordingly or not. Is there any better way of doing this I am appreciated if you send me the information