Bi-amping question

A few quick thoughts on biamping. I'm running an actively biamped Linn system, which is intended to be upgraded in this way.

Passive biamping, especially if you're using a tube amp, will certainly beef up the bass. Whether this is an "improvement" or not will depend on a number of things. One is quality of the amps. In your case, I don't think that a receiver will do much for you. One good amp is better than two poor amps, or one good amp hampered by a second poor amp. Unless you make a significant jump in amp quality, you're probably better off using one amp and adding a sub like the other posters suggest.

On the other hand, active biamping, where you replace the speaker crossover with an electronic crossover, and then use two amps, is a huge improvement. That's not what you're proposing however. You can do this with: two amps, an electronic crossover, and with or without a sub; or with one amp and a sub using an active crossover. The latter is what Bob is suggesting. That's probably the best way to go with your Totems, although in my view the former is far better if you have a system designed to be upgraded in this way.

As far as using tubes on top and SS on the bottom, a lot of people do this. For some it works, for others it doesn't. I've never tried it.

When you biamp, the amps do not have to be the same. However, they do have to have the same "gain". Otherwise the balance between the tweeters and mid/woofer will be thrown off. Whatever is being run by the amp with the higher gain will be "louder" than the cone being driven by the amp with the lower gain. This can certainly damage the tweeters if it's the less loud one and you crank up the volume trying to restore the volume balance.

Question: How critical is the crossover in the loop between the amp and the Staffs versus just running separate lines directly to the sub and the speakers? My experience without one has been that a smaller amp will start to clip and the mid bass drivers on small bookshelf speakers will start to go all wobbly with bass rich material at higher volumes, while the powered sub just plows ahead undeterred. I have also heard that putting a less than high quality crossover in the path can defeat the purpose of having a speaker like the Staff which has carefully matched crossovers and drivers. Other's experience on this appreciated. Also, which subs quality built-in crossovers to deal with high level inputs and outputs to speakers?

Agree with all posts here, I have always thought that you would have volume and tone matching problems if you used different amps or types of amplification to bi-amp a single speaker system. This has been my experience building custom sound systems for automobiles.

Well thanks for the responces. The issue of having the same "gain" was what I had been reading about and didn't quite understand. The info about the Sttaf bass being a mid/bass was something I hadn't thought of. I have no interest on adding a subwoofer, more powerful bass isn't what I'm after. I find I have the volumn knob at 12:00 for many of my CD's even though I'm in a 13X20 room and sitting 7-8 ft awawy from the speakers. I guess I'm used to a volumn setting of 9-10:00 on other systems and just thought maybe this would be a good idea. I'll just keep it as it is.

Done properly a subwoofer will increase dynamics, soundstage and detail. You should not know the sub is even turned on until you turn it off.

Concur 100% with this. When set up properly it is wonderful. Just last night I moved my system out of my dedicated room (daughter returning from school for summer) and was listening to Beck's "Sea Change." The bass was overwhelming so I turned the sub off. Things were better but definitely lacking so I went to work adjusting the sub for its new placement and before Beck was finished the sub was dialed in. Now if I turn the sub off it is only noticed in the very lowest register, more of an ambiance thing.
This is with a pair of Proac 1.5s which aren't exactly bass shy speakers. I don't think I'll ever be without a sub in my system again.