Bi-amping

[Guest JohnA]

Well today i did alot of fiddling around with my setup and have to say its the best i have heard it in a very long time

Since i have moved into the new room i hav never been 100% happy with it, lots of playing around, speaker re-locations, trying all sorts of things but now i think i finaly got it and can sit back and just enjoy the music

All the behringer gear is out of the chain and speakers bi-amped as i had a couple of spare channels.

Now i have always bi-wired which led to no noticable differences, but i had the wire so did it.

Well today it was time to bi-amp my speakers.

So is it worth it.

Yes i believe it is. The dynamics are much better, better controlled bass and a more open and cleaner souding top end.

Would be interesting to note what other differences can be had if i were to remove the passive x-over network and go active.

Its something i won't find out with these speakers as i don't want to destroy my warranty or re-sale value.

If you can bi-amp and have the spare channels go ahain and give it a hot, you may be pleasently suprised.

Now i can't wait to get these SGR octagon active speakers in my room and my octagon subs

Come on Harry hop to it

[betty boop]

good to hear johna, I've got my paradigm cc570 centre bi-amped off the channels on the elektra. when I had a second MF A5cr power amp I felt similar benefits at the time bi-amping my mission mains. A cleaner less forced sound. with better dynamics and a sound eminating from a more inky black background. Ofcourse since then have upgraded mains speakers that cant be bi-amped but they sound better anyways so not complaining

I think bi-amping is worth it. have experinced a couple of other systems where benfit was clear, one with cyrus power amps and another with naim ones.

no doubt to me there is benfit but I'd counter it though with the argument, is it worth buying two power amps to bi-amp or to just buy a better power amp in the first place. Also if large power amps with large power supply etc and if the speakers are not particularly taxing then perhaps the benefit may not be so evident.

I've got a chart explainging bi-amping, including showing both methods diagramatically if any interest to anyone could scan in and post.

[ausnew]

good to hear johna, I've got my paradigm cc570 centre bi-amped off the channels on the elektra. when I had a second MF A5cr power amp I felt similar benefits at the time bi-amping my mission mains. A cleaner less forced sound. with better dynamics and a sound eminating from a more inky black background. Ofcourse since then have upgraded mains speakers that cant be bi-amped but they sound better anyways so not complaining

I think bi-amping is worth it. have experinced a couple of other systems where benfit was clear, one with cyrus power amps and another with naim ones.

no doubt to me there is benfit but I'd counter it though with the argument, is it worth buying two power amps to bi-amp or to just buy a better power amp in the first place. Also if large power amps with large power supply etc and if the speakers are not particularly taxing then perhaps the benefit may not be so evident.

I've got a chart explainging bi-amping, including showing both methods diagramatically if any interest to anyone could scan in and post.

Yes please Al, I would like to have it.

When the new AVR's come out, I am thinking of Bi-Amping my Missions, or was that your...

[Guest JohnA]

no doubt to me there is benfit but I'd counter it though with the argument, is it worth buying two power amps to bi-amp or to just buy a better power amp in the first place.

I've got a chart explainging bi-amping, including showing both methods diagramatically if any interest to anyone could scan in and post.

Well this is just it isn't it Al

each individual neds to work out what would benefit them more. For me it hasn't cost me anything. Will i get better results using a $10k amp, maybe, maybe not, something that needs to be tried first.

Do post the chart Al

[betty boop]

no worries guys, I'll dig it out, scan in and post, it has a bit of a verbal explanation as well that goes into a bit of detail on the potential benefits.

[betty boop]

scanned in the article and posted here guys, was in dec edition of the uk mag hifi news.

http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtop...t=0#entry677340

ps aus, if looking to bi-amp the cyrus amps are ideally suited to this, jsut a matter of adding power amps to your hearts content. both cyrus and arcam specifically make power amps to go with their integrateds for bi-amping. best thing to do would be to borrow an amp to check out if benfit worth the money for you.

[Guest JohnA]

Thanks for posting it Al

[AndrewW]

I bi-amped my Lyrix Gold mains as I had a couple of spare amp channels from my 2700B.

Definite improvement in sound quality.

Worth the cost of two extra cable runs (which I had laying around spare anyway).

Andrew.

[the-austrian]

I've got 2 spare channels on the elektra - who can recommend a high quality rca splitter?

[RodN]

Well I'm forced to quad amp so have no say in this one...... it does make sense scientifically though although very relative to the way the passive network is setup but ultimately the control you have over the speaker coil it should result in improvements.

[RodN]

I've got 2 spare channels on the elektra - who can recommend a high quality rca splitter?

htcustomcables do 'sub' cables which are RCA split and about the best I can think of (without wasting your money on some ridiculous snakeoil products) http://www.htcustomcables.com/subwoofer_vector_ii.htm

[the-austrian]

htcustomcables do 'sub' cables which are RCA split and about the best I can think of (without wasting your money on some ridiculous snakeoil products) http://www.htcustomcables.com/subwoofer_vector_ii.htm

Cool, thanks. If I'd thought for more than 2 seconds I could have come up with that also, but I'm a lazy/impatient bastard

[betty boop]

I've got 2 spare channels on the elektra - who can recommend a high quality rca splitter?

austrian as another alternative you can utilise your existing RCA and jsut buy a stinger/cadence little Y cable that you place at the amp to feed the 2ch's the same signal. this is $13? from jb hifi in their car audio section, cant fault it for build and provides an excellent result.

[moochy1503560064]

yep i was about to mention the Car audio route as well. autobarn have what you need for round the same kind of coin too. its exactly what i have done to biamp my B&W 603's of johns old rotel 1075 poweramp. i had to make the sacrifice of running my rear speakers off my avr/pre but in the end i think its worth it concidering that (for me) it was only a $13 outlay.

[Nolz]

I used the option on the yammie rxv2700 to bi amp my mains and to me it did appear to have the effect of making the sound less compressed the seperation between the instruments and voices seemed to be alot clearer. Although it may not be bi amping in the true sense of having entirely seperate amplifiers, it did seem to make a difference.

I then gave that up for an external 3ch Rotel amp and back to bi WIRING, the improvements then seemed to be even greater, soundstage and depth and the improvements mentioned above all seemed to be another leap forward.

I do think that 1) bi amping via the receiver made a difference and 2) a seperate dedicated had similar improvements and then some even if NOT bi amp'd.

Now how much of this is in my head....hrmmmm

[fawlty99]

I don't know that bi-amping makes much if any difference provided the amp is up to it in the first place. I have biamped the 603 fronts by utilising AVR amps for the back speakers and the Elektra amps for the rest. Didn't really notice any difference in the fronts but at least now the AVR has some work to do (apart from processing of course). Just used a car audio Y splitter from JB hifi which seems as good as any and is qute cheap.

[AndrewW]

Just used a car audio Y splitter from JB hifi which seems as good as any and is qute cheap.

If by this you mean you took say the front output, ran it through a Y cable to the two sets of posts on your speakers, then this is not bi-amping.

You are still only using one amp channel for each speaker.

Biamping means you two amp channels for each speaker.

Sorry if I've interpreted what you wrote incorrectly.

Cheers,

Andrew.

[Cody]

Yes please Al, I would like to have it.

When the new AVR's come out, I am thinking of Bi-Amping my Missions, or was that your...

good to hear you picked those up. still one more set to go then?

on the subject of b-amping, i'd have to agree with fawlty99's comments. i bi-amped my speakers when i first got my Pioneer AVR (using the back surrounds) and didnt think it made any difference.

will try again when i add power amps to my system.

[ausnew]

good to hear you picked those up. still one more set to go then?

on the subject of b-amping, i'd have to agree with fawlty99's comments. i bi-amped my speakers when i first got my Pioneer AVR (using the back surrounds) and didnt think it made any difference.

will try again when i add power amps to my system.

Thanks DG...one more set to go, or even just a single one if I can get a pair where one is faulty cheap

Have not actually picked them up yet, as in Singapore this week (Tempted to buy something here but don't know what yet)

[jim7777777]

I've been considering using 2 spare channels on my 2600 to bi-amp my Jamo D590s.

My concern is that the 2600 bi-amp feature doesn't send a full-range signal to each input of the speakers. It uses a builtin crossover so each speaker input only gets a part-range signal.

Most of the discussion on bi-amping seems to centre on sending a full-range signal to each speaker input and letting the speaker crossover filter out the unneeded frequencies.

Are there potential issues with effectively having 2 crossovers? (1 in the amp and one in the speakers?) i.e. what happens if the crossover points are not the same? What happens if they are vastly different? I don't know how the crossover and inputs for the speakers are configured. e.g. the speakers are 3-ways but only have 2 pairs of inputs so it could be #1 input = low + mid and #2 input = high, OR it could be #1 input = low and #2 input = mid + high. I would expect the two of these options to have vastly different crossover points

I'm confused...

[AndrewW]

My concern is that the 2600 bi-amp feature doesn't send a full-range signal to each input of the speakers. It uses a builtin crossover so each speaker input only gets a part-range signal.

Are you sure about this (mind you the 2600 could be different from the 2700) ?

There is nothing in the 2700B manual stating which output should be connected to which set of posts (ie which is high and which is low).

I had just assumed that they would both be sending the full range signal.

But I stand to be corrected

Andrew.

[jim7777777]

Nope. Looks like I'm the one who needs to be corrected. I just re-read the section in the manual and I got it wrong. It does say: "each amplifier operates over a restricted frequency range." That's what lead me astray.

Looks like I'll be going to pick up some more cable and setting the fronts up for bi-amping...!

Thanks.

[AndrewW]

no problem, happy to help

Andrew.

[fawlty99]

If by this you mean you took say the front output, ran it through a Y cable to the two sets of posts on your speakers, then this is not bi-amping.

You are still only using one amp channel for each speaker.

Biamping means you two amp channels for each speaker.

Sorry if I've interpreted what you wrote incorrectly.

Cheers,

Andrew.

No I have the Y connector coming from the preout FL and FR & splitting to 2 amps each on the Electra. 2 channels for each front speaker.

[Delnario]

Hi all.. im new to DTV Forums..

I took home an Anthem A5 Power amp a few weeks ago to have a play with.. I Bi-Amped my Paradigm Signature S4's and was quite delighted at their response. I loved everything about these speakers at their price point before i bi-amped them.. their imaging, tonal response, rich timberal sound and espially build quality are second to none so i was curious how they would sound on such a monsterous amp. The Anthem A5 is a 6k 5 x 225W Blunderbus.. ideally this is normally paired with the D2 pre-amp but at 13k they're still a little scarse in australia so i can only imagine how spectacular this amp is WITH the D2. Weighing in at nearly 30kgs it was a mission in itself to haul it into my living room and due to the lack of space in my equipment rack, could only locate it on the floor. At first i only connected it with two channels.. To say i was impressed is an understatement! Musically and theatrically this amp incredible but it wasnt until i bi-amped my S4's (for the first time) that i experienced for the first hand what its like to be God! You could quite conceivably move mountains with the amount of power at your command!! lol

The A series Anthem gear is the entry level in the Statement range.. they also create a P series that are double the price.. I cant wait to hear them!!

If done properly, bi-amping should indeed improve the performance of your system. However i think all those people who are using receivers like the big yamy RX-V2600's should know that even though you can turn on "bi-amp" in the advanced menu that the speaker B terminals are bridged anyway so there isnt much point.

Anywho.. my 2 cents worth!

Delnario