Is Bi - amping worth the trouble?

An interesting thing to try is to get the panasonic Sa-xr57 digital receiver. Which is a 100 watts x 7 and has a biamp function built into the unit. When biamped in stereo mode, it uses 4 of its internal amps for the bass section and one each to the highs. So it uses 6 of its internal amps when in biamp mode. All you have to do is run your speaker wire and push the biwire function and you are good to go for 300 bucks. It also has a great sound and has suprisingly great bass tone and slam and never gets hot.
You can also increase or lower the gain to the bass or treble, independant of tone controls if one seems hot to you. I know it is not expensive and no tubes are glowing, but you might find it interesting.

Ngjockey
... got it. Thank you.

Markphd
Got it. As I was listening to the input you posted it started coming back to me... the vertical thing was the way I initially thought to go... with the same VK500 w/BP amps. Possibly bridged... though not at first. then I thought better of that deal and figured on the tube + SS. Given the refresher/reminder course you were so kind to post, I see a bit more clearly that 'dream' could well become the 'nightmare'... and pricey. Thanks for the reality check. Another thing VK had told me about was the 'gain' issues. Even two 500's wouldn't be entirely matched exactly... and it was very doubtful that BAT could match them perfectly.

Well, gee. that's a drag. Oh, well... it was a nice dream while it lasted. I'm still dead set on trying tubed amps though.

'preciate the input on using the Sony rec., I've already got one, yet never thought to use it that way... mine puts out a bit more power than the suggested one, but i'm too disappointed now to give it a shot.

Bi amping given the info posted here, at least for me, seems way more involved than I had thought. But being an audionut, I thought the "bi-amping path" to really be the 'end all be all' in audio.

I more than appreciate the efforts, knowledge and experiences you have provided me. Thank you very much.

I'm using a hybrid on top and a SS amp on the bottom of my Vmps Rm 40's. Many people will tell you that at least with planar/electrostats that some tube magic on top can be magic. They were right!

I think the main advantage is to take the best qualities of two amps and use them there as I have. Another benefit however is reducing the amount of crossover components you're using. In the end experiementation is key. With our VS's I don't know as I've not heard them. You could also try various tube preamps. Please remember different tube preamps will sound widely different. Some not very euphonic like Audio Research to somewhat more, Conrad Johnson, to syrupy.

Biamping in my experience in my system has been the best way to go. If you haven't owned any tube gear it's a must try. A hybrid amp like the Van Alstine Fetvalves are excellent. The Blue Circle I had also was an outstanding amp, although quite expensive for the money. On the bass using this Rotel 991 is excellent. The bass quality is outstanding and I'm picky in that department. For under 500 bucks there's a few amps that will work well for the bass.

Best of luck and have fun!

Mark has given a great

My system was passively bi-amped for a few years. At first I used a pair of SS amps, one on each speaker. Then, just like Blindjim, I wanted to add tube amps to the mix since I was enjoying having a tubed preamp. So, I sold off one SS amp and then added a pair of tubed mono-blocks that drove the mid and high freq. and let the SS handle the woofers on both. A horizontal configuration. The gains where within 1 dB, not perfect but a pretty good match. Now I was getting closer to what I wanted to hear, but there was still something missing. I could not put my finger on exactly what it was. Music sounded better, but still there was some lack of even delivery across the spectrum.

I kept listen and also kept researching. It finally occured to me that what I was really trying to do was compensate for the short-comings of the cross-over circuitry and in-efficiency of the speakers. I have sinced moved to a single, high quality single amp and a much more efficient 2-way speaker. The dynamics, clarity, speed, timbre, pretty much everything is much, much better. I can play the sweetest chamber music or the hardest rock or the fastest jazz and hear so much more musically.

Our listening preferences and system goals may be quite different, but I offer my experiences since it sounds like you may be looking for what I was looking for. Hopefully, you can find something useful in what I've written hear.

Best of luck in your search,

Dan

Blindjim, Do not let it go so fast, Biamping does work and to very good extent. I really like tube mids.
Just use the Xover in your speakers, they were designed with them and you should keep them, just add a tubed amp in the mids and highs, and an SS on the bottom, use a passive preamp like the EVS attenuators or the Luminous Audio preamp on the bass amp and let the tubed amp run free. The speaker xover will allow your speakers to do their job properly. You will win much more definition and dynamics on both bass and mids, you will get the "tubed" sound on the mids.

Since the power needed for mids and highs is much less you can do with a simpler push pull amp with a coule of power tubes per side, these have better definition to my ears that huge monster tube amps with 6 or 8 tubes per side, wich is what you will need if you decide to go tubes without biamping (these are much more expensive also!)
So finally from the preamp add a "Y" connector to the tube amp on one side and to the mids and highs; on the other connector to the passive preamp and the bass SS amp, that way you can adjust the volume needed on the bass amp.

Once you get the hang of it you can add a passive line level Xover (PLLXO) on the tube amp to avoid getting low freq. into it (say from 100hz up) that will help the amps a lot, more definiftion and dinamics again.

If you like symphonic music this is the best way to go!
If you are into girl with guitar music you dont really need biamping.

I am not biamping right now since my new speakers wont let me, and I miss it, I am thinking on adding a pair of subwoofers and a PLLXO on my tube amps....

Do try it!