Bi-Amp Question

There is no problem with doing what you ask. The sonics should improve so long as the quality of cabling used remains consistent and the way that you split the signal from preamp to amp is done in reasonable fashion. The only potential problem that could happen is that your preamp may not like the lower impedance that it sees running into the extra channels, but that "probably" won't be much of a problem with SS gear.

If you do this, i would exercise caution at first. The sound may end up being cleaner than what you are used to. Since distortion adds apparent volume, the lack of distortion will tend to have you playing it louder than you think it is. Your tweeters may not like this too much and go up in smoke. B&W's are one of the few speakers that i know of that seem to have problems with blowing out tweeters in a non-clipping related situation.

As a side note, once you hear your speakers like this, it may be hard to go back to one channel of amplification per speaker when you do fill the rest of the system out :( Sean
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Sean, thanks for your response. I should also have stated that my preamp for 2 channel is a Cary 2002 with tubes and a HT bypass. To split the signal, I use a simple RCA "Y" splitter from the preamp to the Sherbourn amp. Is this configuration likely to cause me any problem? You are right, I love the sound with the bi-amp and have already decided that I will need another amp in order to complete the system.

I see nothing wrong with what you are doing. One question though: Are you using an all metal "splitter" or is it a "Y cable" i.e. one male RCA that feeds two cables terminated with female RCA's ? I would recommend an all metal splitter over the generic "Y cord". If you wanted to get your fingers dirty, you could make your own "Y cable" that goes from one large barreled* male RCA at the preamp end to two male RCA's that plug right into each amplifier channel. This gets rid of the adapter all together and keeps things simpler. Sean
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* I know that Axon makes male RCA's with a 10 mm throat. This is large enough to accomodate two smaller diameter cables side by side. I've purchased some of these from Zalytron before, but they may have a minimum order.