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I need quick help- Bi-amp Threshold/McIntosh

I was giving strong thought to bi-amping a set of B&W 802 Matrix Series III speakers presently running on a Threshold S350E single amp. I was going to go with a tube top amp bi-amped, and a guy I know is selling a McIntosh MC2700 amp (200 w/pc)which he thought was tube, and offered it to me for a reasonable price. However, in checking this amp out, I found it was SS. I still want to bi-amp this system, but I can get Thresholds for less used if I want to stay SS, and possibly verticle bi-amp if I can find an S350. Or is the MC2700 a great amp which would sound tube like? or even a great bottom bi-amp as my Threshold is silky smooth anyway? ASAP help would be great.... Thanks, Tom. I know nothing about McInstosh. I though they were all tube too.
trich727

Showing 3 responses by drrdiamond

drrdiamond
671 posts
 
Plato,
Altough I am not familiar with the 2700, all McIntosh amps that I know of have gain contols, so matching gain should be easy.
Also your statement that bi-amping will be of little or no benefit, is wrong. There are are many reasons why it will be of benefit. Two big ones are:
1. Twice the power (you can never have too much)
2. Either more separation between frequencies (each amp only having to handle limited bandwith with horizontal biamping) or more separation between channels (with vertical biamping)

I personally would probably use two Threshold amps rather than mixing with the McIntosh....but I am not a fan of McIntosh.
Richard
drrdiamond
671 posts
 
Plato, I think you are confusing bi-amping with bi-wiring:

I went from one 300watt/channel Krell amp to two 300 watt/channel Krell amps. Therefore, I went from 300 to 600 watts per channel. (or in my case with 4 ohm speakers, from 600 to 1200 watts per channel.)
In my case the result was the biggest improvement that I have ever made to my system, but to be fair, I also went form a passive to an active crossover. ... And it was worth every penny.

Richard
drrdiamond
671 posts
 
I think to easily understand the concept, consider the following:

Person Q uses one three hundered watt amp to run his two way speaker system. His speakers have a woofer and a mid-high speaker. The speakers have an internal crossover that devides the power to each amp. For simplicity, lets say each speaker uses the same power. So the 300 watt amp will have 150 watts available for each of them (woofer and mid-highs)

Now lets say person R uses the three hundred watt amp for his woofer and then went out and bought another 300 watt amp for the mid-highs. Person R now has available 300 watts for each of the speakers (woofer and mid-high).
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