I thought I'd bring this thread back to life since I am going down the bi-amp route now with a pair of Von Schweikert VR4.5 speakers.
I started down the "active" route and NOTHING sounded right at all. As KAL and Raul have stated, those speaker designers spent a lot of energy coming up with the crossovers. You have to spend a LOT of money to reproduce the transfer function correctly. I'm sure it can be done to good effect but I wasn't getting there. Out went the crossover idea.
I did some more research and athough a lot of people dismissed it, the passive bi-amping (I think that is what it's called) is the way to go. If the speaker manufacturer provided seperate inputs, then they also think it is a good idea to biamp (not just bi-wire!).
Just have two amps go straight into the speaker with no external crossover and let the speaker crossover do the work. If you are using the same amps you are done!
But have you exploited all the advantages of bi-amping?
I will respectfully disagree with Raul about using different amps. I'm no trail blazer here and this advice came from none other than Albert Von Schweikert himself who advocates using SS for the Lows and tubes for the Highs. Check it out on the AudioCircle VS forum:
wwwdotaudiocircledotcom/index.php?topic=59529.0
So it can be done and to good effect.
VERY IMPORTANT: If you use different amps, as I have, then you still have some work to do to level match the amps. Get out your Radio Shack db meter and feed white noise (or is it pink noise?) and adjust until even. A simple resistor attenuator is all that's needed. You can build one into an RCA or XLR "adapter" that can go between your preamp and amp.
I used an NHT PVC to adjust and will eventually build the adapters and remove the NHT.
I am very happy with the sound. I now have the smoothness of a tube amp (Thor TPA-60) and the bass slam of SS (Sim W5) - the best of both worlds. Did I say I am very happy with the sound? Oh, yes i did8-).
HTH
I started down the "active" route and NOTHING sounded right at all. As KAL and Raul have stated, those speaker designers spent a lot of energy coming up with the crossovers. You have to spend a LOT of money to reproduce the transfer function correctly. I'm sure it can be done to good effect but I wasn't getting there. Out went the crossover idea.
I did some more research and athough a lot of people dismissed it, the passive bi-amping (I think that is what it's called) is the way to go. If the speaker manufacturer provided seperate inputs, then they also think it is a good idea to biamp (not just bi-wire!).
Just have two amps go straight into the speaker with no external crossover and let the speaker crossover do the work. If you are using the same amps you are done!
But have you exploited all the advantages of bi-amping?
I will respectfully disagree with Raul about using different amps. I'm no trail blazer here and this advice came from none other than Albert Von Schweikert himself who advocates using SS for the Lows and tubes for the Highs. Check it out on the AudioCircle VS forum:
wwwdotaudiocircledotcom/index.php?topic=59529.0
So it can be done and to good effect.
VERY IMPORTANT: If you use different amps, as I have, then you still have some work to do to level match the amps. Get out your Radio Shack db meter and feed white noise (or is it pink noise?) and adjust until even. A simple resistor attenuator is all that's needed. You can build one into an RCA or XLR "adapter" that can go between your preamp and amp.
I used an NHT PVC to adjust and will eventually build the adapters and remove the NHT.
I am very happy with the sound. I now have the smoothness of a tube amp (Thor TPA-60) and the bass slam of SS (Sim W5) - the best of both worlds. Did I say I am very happy with the sound? Oh, yes i did8-).
HTH