biamping question

Econotweaks -- Nothing I said was meant to negate the possibility that bi-amping can produce a significant improvement in sound quality, if done right. In fact my post in the other thread that I linked to above specifically pointed out, among other things, that the sound quality of the amps may benefit from the reduction in the current demand on each amp that biamping results in.

The issue here is not sound quality -- it is how to obtain a significant increase in power.

Regards,
-- Al

Al,

Thanks for your congenial posts. But I thought the issue wasn't more power per se (that is, I didn't hear him say, I need more power, should I bi-amp?) but rather, I want to bi-amp, so should I worry about keeping things balanced between bottom and top in terms of watts, or should I supply the bass speakers (since they demand more power) with a more powerful amp, say a ss? Anyway, the OP seems to have abandoned the idea, so. . . .

I biamp with 4 150 watt monoblocks.When I first decided to go that way I didn't really know what to expect with respect to volume levels etc. What I found was that volume levels remain about the same. However, the sound is much better. There seems to be more of it and less strain on peaks. My speakers are about 90db sensitive and an easy load to drive. Bi amping makes them sound better all round but the volume levels remain the same. You may need more power all round. I like solid state for power amps matched with a hybrid preamp and phono stage but you may like something else.

I see nobody has mentioned active biamping yet, so let me throw it in.

Sy: a way that might accomplish what you seemed to be intending in your original post is to include an active crossover between the preamp and the amps: the full bandwidth signal goes from the pre to the crossover, where it's separated into mids/trebble and bass. From the crossover you get a set of cables carrying mids/trebble going to the VTL and another set of cables carrying the bass going to a solid state amp. Then from the VTL to the mids/tweeter and from the SS to the woofer/s.

With this configuration now your VTL needs to reproduce only part of the bandwidth. At around 350 Hz crossover point you get 50% of the energy to the mids/trebble and 50% to the bass. Then you do effectively increase the power of your system. A lot more info at sound.westhost.com/bi-amp.htm.

The downside of this configuration: now you need a SS power amp, a crossover, 2 extra power cords, 2 extra ICs, and the rack space required by these. Are you better off by spending all this and the time it will take to tune this setup, or by simply buying a larger amp that can play your speakers better? Also, at the website I listed it clearly says you should remove the passive crossover of the speakers for this to work, although some users haven't done so and report huge benefits anyway.

Me? I don't know! I've been toying with this idea too. I cannot remove the passive x/o in my speakers withou damaging them (so no way), and I'm torn with the extra expense vs. living happily ignorant thereafter :)

I hope this helps.

Regards,
Horacio

If you want a biamped system why do it in a piecemeal fashion where you have to ensure that the gains are correct and either insert your own filters or feed full range signals to the speaker inputs. Instead, buy an active speaker where the gain is set, there is an appropriate power availability for each driver, the signal is properly bandlimited at the amplifier, and the system was designed as an integrated whole. Then you will end up with the full benefits of separate amplifiers. Otherwise you either have to invest an enormous amount of time designing and testing the system to arrive at system in which you will have any assurance of accurate performance.