bi amping

How do I do this? I have, sitting idle, a pair of monoblocks, but have been wondering how they would sound driving my pmc ab1s in dual? The speaker cable, I am using is from a single run in the rear of my amp, but splits into two, to feed bass and treble of my speakers...(if that makes sense._) what would i need to do to bi amp? and would it be a step up? They are avi monos, but im currently using some lovely old croft gear. The mega pre ( with valve psu) and a prototype 4s series power. Ive always wondered about the avi, and heard of someone doing such to great effect recently.

 

You would need another pair of AVI monos to bi amp then you'll have one mono amp feeding each separate treble and bass connections of your speakers. At the moment you have them biwired. Hope that helps.

Cheers
Al

 

If you want to biamp its best to use 4 monos or 2 stereo amps of the same make.If you biamp with your avi say driving the mid and bass and the prototype 4s driving the tweeters the chances are those amps wont have the same gain as each other so when you turn the volume you will have too much bass or treble.

 

I would try simple monoblocing with the AVIs (are they 2000s?) - just use 1 monobloc per speaker and use your speaker cable as is. I tried various combinations of bi-amping / monoblocing and found, that in terms of cost-benefit this was best.
I moved from AVI integrated to 2 x monobloc to 4x monobloc and found a huge improvement with 2x monos (sited close to LS with long interconnect from preamp) but (sadly, as I'd been expecting the same leap in sound quality) a negligable difference with 4.

 

Interesting - thanks guys. neil - does this mean that my 8m long speaker cables could be a bit of an issue?

 

No - not at all. Some feel that short cables are best, I didn't notice a lot of difference - it just meant i could site the amps beside/behind the speakers!

 

I use monoblocks, with 11m speaker leads. I tried having the rack between the speakers, and prefer the results with long leads and the rack out of the way. I have tried a halway house compromise, of longer IC's and shorter speaker cable, but on balance prefer to use longer speaker cable, just make sure its substantial guage stuff.

 

Hi Neil and Dudy, both of you are trying to site your amps nearer to the speakers. Why is this? Is there a reason for getting nearer the speakers and away from rack? Is it due to resonance from the rack? and if yes, what still sits on the rack and is it more important to move the amps, rather than other aspects?

 

Not bi-curious myself but...

In theory:

The output impedance of a good preamplifier is low, the input impedance of a good amplifier is high, and hence the current is minimal. A primary requirement of an interconnect is therefore low capacitance. These can be fairly long as it is easy to maintain low capacitance over a long run.

The situation is different with a power amplifer to loudspeaker connection. Here we have a very small output impedance of the amplifer and a complex load of a loudspeaker. The current is high. This requires a cable of low resistance, low capacitance and low inductance as well. The easiest way to keep L, C and R low is to keep the cable short.

This will apply less to high efficiency speakers than to low efficient speakers as the current requirements are much lower for high efficiency speakers. With very high efficiency speakers, you may even be better off with shorter interconnects and longer speaker cable.

 

I tried it, but decided to go with long speaker leads (11m) as i felt the advantage of having the rack well away from the speakers was more advantagous. I just went for heavy (ish) 4mm sq cable.
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Hi Banpe

I am bi-amping using a 350w digital amp on the bass, and a 9 watt SET amp on the treble.

I'd say it's definately possible therefore to get great results with completely different amps.

You do need a level control on one amp so that you can match the levels of the amp.

By happy co-incicence the two amps I'm using require no adjustment, but the digital amp does have volume pots on them which could be used for this purpose.

If your amp doesnt have this, it's not the end of the world. You could use a resistor in the amp, at the end of an RCA lead, or even put a simple attenuator switch in a box and stick it before one of the amps. All cheap and easy.

Cheers

 

Get a four channel bryston 8b st or sst - and use two channels per speaker. That will give you best sound - should cost around a grand.