Bi-amp with same sort of amp?

it is generally more difficult to match differing amps for bass & mid/treble. that said, as abstract7 points out, it *can* be done, but ya have to pay close attention to the characteristics of the speakers & the amps.

using an active crossover, w/adjustable wolume for at least one of the amps, makes things a lot easier. my current system uses a pair of larger vmps subs, crossed-over at 60hz, to a pair of meret re monitors. these monitors have an eton carbon-fibre woofer & a focal inwerted-dome tweet. i use a pair of bridged adcom gfa-555's to drive the vmps', & a pair of electrocompaniet aw60ftt's in a wertical-biamped set-up to drive merets. i have *no* problems w/the different amps, because the 60hz crossover point is effected w/a marchand 24db/octave active x-over. besides offering separate bass & treble wolume controls, it also offers a wolume control *at* the x-over point. this makes it easy to match differing amps w/differing slew & gain rates. i highly recommend using an active x-over in general, and for transparency at a reasonable cost, i feel the marchand can't be beat. while i don't have direct experience w/the well-regarded bryston 10b, for example, more than one person told me the marchand is more transparent, at half the price. the marchand is also more flexible, imho...

hope this helps, doug s.

I forgot to mention the crossover. This probably plays a big factor in whether the biamp will sound good or not. Some speakers bass crosses over to the mids at 200 or 300 hz. This might be too high, where the difference in amps is more audible. I think the lower the crossover frequency the less impact using different amps will have. For the record the speakers I were biamping have the crossover set at 120 hz. From this point down I think it's okay. The higher frequencies will start to enter lower midrange area where you might notice the amps not matching more easily.

The biggest concern for me ,because I'm looking to do the same sort of thing, is gain matching. Forget about vertical or horizontal etc. If one manufacturers amp requires more voltage than anothers, there will be volume differences that will throw the whole presentation off. You can use outboard crossovers that will settle that issue, but at what cost? If you like what company A is doing for you at the top of the band, then use one of their amps for the bottom as well. If you like tubes on top and solid state at the bottom, then you have to use an outboard crossover for gain variations. This combo can be phenominal or horrible. Always be careful when puttin' on the chefs' hat.

Well, I carried out an experiment yesterday. I connected
one channel of the big class A amp to a full-range speaker,
the other speaker was connected to one of my homebuilt mono-blocks. Yes, the amps in question have different gain,and one inverts the signal and the other does not.They also have
different tonal characters, and as I mentioned before, to me
they have different timing or pace, especially in the lower register.
The result of the study: it didn´t sound good at all!
I tried to be open-minded when listening, but the sound was
confusing, in my ears. Interesting is, that I used one of
the monoblocks together with a smaller monoblock for a period(as I was updating the other home-brewn monoblock),and while they too had different gains(my tube preamp doesn´t have abalance control), the result was quite nice!And, to me, those amps have almost the same pace in their presentation.
The VMPS electronic crossover that I own, has gain as well
as attenuation,for each cannel, therefore different gain
in the amps that I will use for the lowest register, and the rest of the system, should not be a problem.

I think I begin with a good amp for the upper register,
i.e. from about 65 Hz and uppwards. Then I will try different amps for the lowest register, thus checking if the
registers blend together.Patmatt,I fully agree to your last sentence!

Regards
Håkan

Thanks for the response! I've just recently purchased a pair of the Monarchy SE100 Deluxe amps, and I'm very satisfied with their performance. I was using a Muse model 160 before, which is also excellent, but nowhere near as open as the Monarchys'. At $1200.00 for the pair (used 10 mos.), I couldn't resist. I'm thinking of Bi-Amping with the Muse on the bottom, so I'm very interested in how your results turn out. Thanks for the info about inverting/non-inverting. I can't believe I overlooked that issue. ROOKIE MISTAKE!