2. amps-preamps
  3. 1251484484

Bi-amp befuddlement

Newbie in midst of modest upgrades to old system and wondering if I am getting best benefit from bi-amping:

Having read about it, I acquired an Arcam 8 power amp to pair with my Arcam 8 Integrated.

Speakers are B&W 601 S2, about 20 years old, which sounded quite warm and nice bi-wired with Monster cables. For the bi-amping effort, I bought Anti-cables.

I followed the Arcam instructions and wired the power amp to low end, the integrated to high end. Frankly, not sure I noticed a difference - except maybe when I crank it up. The sounds seems clearer, with less distortion, or maybe that's wishful hearing.

I am questioning things in part because the other day, I shut down the power amp and the music nstantly went tinny, like some tranmission from space. Put on the power amp, and all richness floods back. Clearly, I expect a change but not such a massive one.

Is that normal? Is that all I am getting out of the intergrated? I have looked at Audiogon forums and read about vertical bi-amping - one amp per speaker. Is that a better use of two amps for somebody who is not going to mess with speaker cross-overs?
maverick18
almarg's avatar
almarg
9,670 posts
 
Rodman makes excellent points, but on the question of horizontal vs. vertical biamping, there are arguments that can be made both ways. See the comments by the noted designer Steve McCormack, favoring vertical biamping, in this thread:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?aamps&1234896660

Ultimately, of course, the tradeoffs will be system dependent, and the only way to judge what is best for your particular system is to try it both ways.

Regards,
-- Al
stanwal's avatar
stanwal
3,147 posts
 
I had not been biamping for some time , first because I was using my M3 and didn't have a good match for it and then because I was comparing my Spendor SP1/2s to the Mini Utopias which have only one terminal. A couple of days ago I decided to biamp the Spendors with 4 of my Meridian 605s. I had forgotten how much better biamping is, things stand out without straining to hear them and you hear things that were not there before. The Spendors cross quite high also but difference biamping is considerable.
rodman99999
6,206 posts
 
If you were going to vertically bi-amp with separates(pre and two stereo amps), I wouldn't have mentioned any POTENTIAL imbalances. When/if you DO try that configuration; please post your impressions.
dgaylin
255 posts
 
I had always been told that to get any real benefit from bi-amping you need to disable the speakers internal crossover and use an active external crossover. Yet the posts here suggest otherwise. Can anyone enlighten me on this point?
bdgregory
1,726 posts
 
I had always been told that to get any real benefit from bi-amping you need to disable the speakers internal crossover and use an active external crossover. Yet the posts here suggest otherwise. Can anyone enlighten me on this point?
Benefits can definitely be gained without an active crossover. It depends greatly on the design of the speaker, and the amps. The best (and most authoritative) info I've read is in the thread referenced in Almarg's post above.
My experience has been mixed, with multiple amps, horizontal and vertical, and multiple speakers. In some cases the results were significant improvement, in some a degradation. If your amps aren't identical it's a pain to get them adjusted, and probably not worth the effort IME unless you use an active crossover. And, though I haven't tried an active crossover I suspect it's hard to set that up and have confidence you've optimized everything - sort of like setting up a home theater.
More to discover