Bi amping question

rest assured that i will not attempt to connect two stereo amps in parallel. thanks for the explanation. it makes perfect sense once explained. back to the search for suitable mono blocks...
brad

LOL It's possible, only ONE AT A TIME in case if you plan to keep B&K :-).
Otherwise previous posters are damn right!

What causes the amp to blow if an RCA splitter is used at the pre amp sending two left signals to one amp and two right signals to the other.

To the extent that the characteristics of the signals that the two paralleled amp channels are "trying" to put out are not absolutely identical, each output will be forced to drive a "signal" corresponding to that difference into a load impedance equal to the output impedance of the other channel.

In the case of nearly all solid state amplifiers that output impedance will be near zero, i.e., a tiny fraction of one ohm. The result MIGHT be ok initially, depending on component tolerances and other design characteristics, but as components age and burn in the differences between the gains and other performance parameters of the two channels will change, at least a little. And if for any reason the output stage of one channel were to ever not receive a signal, such as because of some minor fault in upstream circuitry in the amp, the other channel would wind up driving a full amplitude signal into the near zero output impedance of the failed channel, which essentially amounts to driving a dead short.

In the case of tube amps, since their output impedances are typically in the area of one or two or several ohms it might be somewhat within reason to parallel the outputs of the two channels. And in fact I believe that is sometimes done. But consider this scenario: A small signal tube serving one channel of the amp fails, at some point in the future. You start playing music. One channel is trying to put many volts and watts into the speaker, while the other channel (with the dead tube) is trying to force the speaker's input to zero volts. The outputs of the two channels are, of course, connected directly together through the speaker cables. As in the case I described of a failure in upstream circuitry within a solid state amp, ouch!

The bottom line: Don't do it, as the others have said.

Regards,
-- Al

"Then send left and right outputs to a single speaker input? I am just curious and uneducated."

The amp will go up in smoke. You can't combine the 2 channels to one speaker unless the amp is bridged. If you don't believe me, then try it. You will probably blow the house circuit breaker as well. You could also cause a fire in the listening room. DO NOT GIVE IN TO TEMPTATION AND TRY IT.

Thanks for the input. That is that I guess. Just out of curiosity, what causes the amp to blow if an RCA splitter is used at the pre amp sending two left signals to one amp and two right signals to the other. Then send left and right outputs to a single speaker input? I am just curious and uneducated.

Whatever you do, do NOT combine the left and right outputs together!!! You'll toast the amp.

If the stereo amp you have doesn't have an internal way to bridge it to mono, you are stuck with a stereo only amp.

If you had two of the same amp, you could run the right channel output of one amp to the right speaker and the left channel output of the other amp to the left speaker, but you won't add any increase in power. I've seen this done numerous times, but IMHO really didn't think it provided any additional sound quality.

If you really want mono amps...buy mono amps.