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Bi-amping Question?

I am and amature to highend audio and am trying to get into it by first messing around with low-end eqiupment and learn concepts. Quick question. I have a pair of Wharfedale Diamond 8.4 (rated at 150W-RMS 6ohm impendence). Additionally I have a ROTEL RB985 (5 channel at @ 100W per channel at 8 ohm.) Could I bi-wire/bi-amp the Diamond 8.4s using two outputs for each speaker from the amp (i.e. Use Left Front to power Low Frequency of the Left Speaker and Left Rear to power the High Frequency of the Left Speaker and use similar setting for the right speaker). Since the Stereo pre-amp I have has two outputs for each channel, I was planning to connect Left out to Left Front and Left Rear and Right out to Right front and Right Rear on the Rotel amp. Would this actually make a sonic difference? Putting 100W in High Frequency and 100W in Low Frequency = The speaker being powered with 200W or is it still effectively 100W? Any ideas-under the assumption I am buying no additional equipment?
dkalsi
bignerd100
515 posts
 
Bi-amping usually has only a small benefit.
The only thing I would be concerned about is that some (few) preamps have two outputs with one being a high gain and the other being low gain. Chances are this would not hurt anythingif it were the case, but it would sound terrible.
Try it anyway.
Then you too can tell people from personal experience that bi-amping gives you only a small improvement.

Have fun!
jeffreybehr's avatar
jeffreybehr
805 posts
 
1. Wiring inputs and outputs that way will work just finely.
2. You may or may not hear a difference. If you don't have to buy more speakercable, TRY IT!
3. You will be driving your speakers with 400 Watts of rated-maximum power, and the sound should be more dynamic unless you listen at quite-low volumes. Actually, with 6-Ohm speakers, your amp channels could drive more maximum power, say, 150 Watts each, which is around the maximum-rated power of your speakers, so be careful--if you're a headbanger, you may be blowing drivers soon.
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tinman
35 posts
 
My friend set up has bi-amp his B&W 801 with 2 ML333s, the initial improvement seems to be small but we both agreed that once we heard the bi-amp set up for awhile that we can't go back to single amp set up any more. We found the sound does not strain during the loud passages with bi-amp set up to yield more natural sound, much closer to life as I heard in the concert hall. The sound stage is also much stable with bi-amp set. I guess bi-amp set up is depending on the system resolution and power handling of the speakers. In our case, it was better match with bi-amp. Happy listening!!
zieman
339 posts
 
Dkalsi, I would qualify the difference you WILL hear as huge. If as Tinman agrees, you can't go back, and you won't, that's huge. But wait, it gets better! The amp you are using has one power supply, upgrade to a true bi-amp setup and the difference will be HUGE. Enjoy. Z.
erasmusj
14 posts
 
You still need to have a crossover between the preamp and the amplifier. If you don't, then you risk of destroying the drivers (and seriously degrading the sound). Alternatively if you leave the speaker crossovers in circuit then you are simply running bridged pairs of channels to each speaker, not biamping. Unfortunately biamping isn't possible when "buying no additional equipment". Biamping is also not "connect and play". You will need to tune the electronic or digital crossover to exactly match the speaker crossovers, or better still account for room resonances.
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