2. amps-preamps
  3. 1000130462

Biamp? How does this work?

Thanks for reading.

I am using a pair of Energy Veritas 2.8's, very inefficient speakers, 86db, being pushed by a McIntosh MC-352, 350x2.
It actually specs out around 420x2, I am running to 4 ohm tabs, as these speakers are 4. This means, this amp is around 700x2, and when playing LOUD, I pin the needles to 1,400 watts! I have shut the amp down from heat!

Now my idea. I was thinking of running a single two channel amp to the bass drivers as these speakers are triwirable, leaving the 352 for the mid/high's.

1) What are the sonic drawbacks?

2) How would I connect this?\

My thought would be to run a Citation 7.1 (350x2 into 8ohm, or 450x2 into 4ohm) to the lower end.

I do not understand how I would run this system. My preamp (MX-132) has one out for right and one for left.

HELP? Make sense? Buy a new amp??!??????

Thanks,
Dan
nbt

Showing 1 response by fineberg

fineberg
151 posts
 
Bi-amping and even tri-amping can give VERY good results, but it can be difficult to match up the amps and the volume gain will only be about 3dB or 6dBwith tri-amping. However the load your amp sees should be simpler leading to less overheating. The easiest solution is to use identical amps for all frequencies or similar ones with slightly different power (e.g. a Bryston 4B-ST dfor the Bass and 3B-ST for the treble- again getting the gain right can be tricky). With identical amps the speakers take care of everything and no special adjustment is needed. If your pre-amp has only one output you will need a splitter or a special cable (a sort of bi-wire interconnect with one set of RCA's going to 2 sets - any of the companies that custom terminate their cables should be able to make this for you). If this all seems too much you could go for a monster amp (I noticed a pair of Bryston 7B-st's for sale, for example) but bi-amping can sound great.

Good Luck
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