Biamp w/2 Bryston4BST s or 1 14BSTw/B W?

Mcoker, I have owned my B & W N802's for about a year. I have had various amps in my home as demo units. I am currently running Krell FPB 200c to them. That amp does a respectable job, but is not enough in the long run. I considered the Bryston 4b ST's and a pair of 7b ST's. I emailed Bryston and they told me that the 7b ST's betters the 4b ST's in more ways that just power. They present a better sound stage and are definitely better than running two 4b ST's bridged mono. They concurred that you give up sound quality when you bridge the 4b ST's even though you get more power. Having tried several amps with the 802's I believe the more power the better. My goal is to eventually biamp the 802's using the Krell FPB 200c for the highs and a FPB 300c for the lows.

Bwyoung is on the right track: I owned a pair of 4B-ST's and loved them ... until I heard my system with the 7B-ST's. The trade-up was a no-brainer for me since I enjoy a well defined bottom end and my speakers are tough to drive. Overall, the sound stage and "live" experience was better with the 7B's so I would forgo the bi-amping in favor of the better amps. Hope that helps.

This seems to be a popular question, as I'm addressing the same issue and considering the same alternatives.

My conclusion is the 7B-ST, rather than the paired 4B-ST. B&W told me straight that my original choice: B&K 250wpc monoblocks, would be a respectable solution at modest listening levels. The B&K monoblocks are built to handle peak dynamic loads. However, that the next step would be to provide robust power to the LF: The speaker's impedance profile changes driver by driver, HF --> LF. My solution is then, the 7B-ST with an internal bi-wire: probably XLO.

Bwyoung, thanks for the info on what Bryston said. But I do have a question. If the overall consensus, including yours, is to go with one larger amp, such as the two 7B-ST's/single 14B-ST, compared to running dual 4B-ST's and using each channel for a LF and HF post, then why is it that you would buy an FPB300c for the LF and retain your FPB200c for the HF?? Doing a quick search for Krell shows that a single FPB600c is MUCH less than a 200c plus a 300c. Why wouldn't you just sell the 200c and buy a 600c?? Thanks.

Mdorsam@hotmail.com, which B&W's are you using?