If bi-amping is so great, why do some high end speakers not support it?
I’m sure a number of you have much more technical knowledge
than I. so I’m wondering: a lot of people stress the value of bi-amping. My
speakers (B&W CM9, and Monitor Audio PL100II) both offer the option. I use
it on the Monitors, and I think it helps.
But I’ve noticed many speakers upward of $5k, and some more
than $50k (e.g., some of Magico) aren’t set up for it.
Am I missing something? Or is this just one of the issues on
which there are very different opinions with no way to settle the disagreement?
Any crossover requires reactive elements, i.e. caps or inductors or both. High quality caps, such as film and foil teflon or styrene, are prohibitively costly in the high values required for crossing over at the speaker. They are just affordable at the line level.
However, exotic crossovers can make all the difference in the world to mating two speaker elements, and so, if this topology is not replicated in the electronic crossover which drives the amps, bi-amping will be inferior for those speakers.
I had great results multi-amping in my Maggie phase, because in those days their crossovers were straightforward devices.
I've never seen any reason to bi amp.... but i have wondered if the impedance changes because you are driving terminals that are normally tied in parallel with a jumper . I think using different amps for each section is a recipe for disaster.... how can amps with different gain, input sens. and voicing yield better results?
I have used several pairs of mono amps, never dissatisfied with the results. My last stereo amp was a McCormack DNA 125 which was a great amp, no doubt, but my current Quicksilver amps throw a huge 3D image.....maybe it has nothing at all to do with the fact that they are mono but the difference in stereo imaging was not subtle
I could see benefits with that pairing in a biamp configuration,
I haven't owned Maggie's for about 7 yrs and the speakers from then to now would'nt have benefited a biamp configuration,all high efficiency.
Now when you bring up the configuration of active biamping and not using the passive crossovers in a speaker that's a completely different way to go and without question is a game changer.But with greater cost and complexity.
Biamping offers significant SQ improvements at the cost of more amps - usually the transformer is a big cost, beyond the engineering and QC.
Some speaker manfs. do not want you messing up their carefully designed cross-overs; others may worry you will not spend the $$ for multiple quality amps; and others have a narrow focus on drivers, etc. while missing the big picture.
The trend now is for manf.s to build quality class D amps into their speakers and design the amp to optimize each driver. Meridian was a pioneer in that and in sending a digital signal as far down the listening chain as possible.
There are sonic benefits to be gained by getting rid of the speaker-level crossover in a loudspeaker, instead filtering the signal before the power amps, the amps then powering the drivers directly. That requires the speaker be designed to be used in such a fashion, with the line-level crossover duplicating the standard speaker-level one, with no compensation networks for the drivers.
Bi-amping was recommended (by both Magnepan and their original distributor, ARC) for the pre-series .7 Magneplanars. The series .7 Maggies can not be bi-amped, for two reasons: The necessary speaker cable connectors are not present, and, more importantly, the series .7 crossovers are of series design, unlike those used in the pre-series .7 Maggies, which does not allow a simple "textbook" (1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th order filters) crossover.
Interesting stuff. I guess the people who really should answer this would be some speaker manufacturers. Get the ones who do it and the ones who don't together and let the fur fly. thanks for your informed responses.
I tied vertical biamping my ML Aerius i speakers using two different amps - one with volume control, and could not get them to sound good/better even when the volumes were carefully matched. I think a monoblock set up using identical amps yields better results.
If bi-amping is so great, why do some high end speakers not support it?
I think the real issue here is why do some speaker designers provide the option to biwire/biamp. On the other hand, some speakers are designed so that one signal is required to drive the speaker for the intended voicing.
I tried bi-amping once; B&W N801 speakers and two Pioneer Elite M91 power amps (each 2x200W). Certainly made a difference in my case; detail was more pronounced, dynamics improved and overall just sounded better. Also, two beefy power amps, with glowing VU meters simply looks plain cool IMHO. Then I went to a single Krell KSA-250 power amp, wow, what a massive improvement that was. Quite simply the best amp I have ever owned, period.
My advice; worth a try, why not? After all, this hobby (some would say addiction) is all about experimenting and having fun.
Use a tube amp on the mids and top end and a solidstate amp on the woofers.Or maybe a small wattage class a solid state on the mids and tweeters and a more powerful solid state amp on the woofers.Or any other crazy combo you could ever think of.
It's using diff. amps that have totally diff. sound characteristics that don't match up in the overall sound of a given speaker.
If both of your amps have volume controls they are probably about the same in sound maybe diff. pwr output.
I don't have the need to biamp but like I stated I do biwire from one single stereo amp or mono amps.
kdude66 You say a negative of biamping is different sound characteristics of the amps yet you like to biwire because you can select different sounding cables. Doesn't make sense. I biamp. My amps have volume controls and I also can get the power I need to drive my speakers using my favorite sounding amps Alan Alan
Some folks like to biamp, Use a tube amp on the mids and top end and a solidstate amp on the woofers.Or maybe a small wattage class a solid state on the mids and tweeters and a more powerful solid state amp on the woofers.Or any other crazy combo you could ever think of.
There is also a lot of negatives in my opinion for biamping, matching of sound levels and the overall amps being used having different sound characteristics.Also it just makes a system that much more complex more wires and cables.
I have tried it and it's been so long ago I couldn't give any particulars in what gear was involved.
I do like to biwire the majority of the different speakers I have owned,mainly so I have the flexibility to choose different speaker wires that go to the mids and tweeters and diff. maybe heavier gauge to the woofers.Just really my personal preference and if I have a set of speakers that only have one set of terminals I either add another pair or wire directly to the crossover.
After many years of biwiring I would like to say It makes a small but noticeable difference,adding clarity and better dynamics but honestly the jury is still out with this one.
The only way to truly know for your system is to maybe try it and see.
A lot of technical variables come in to play with this subject and if you ask 5 different audiophiles you will get 6 different answers.
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