Is bi amping worth it ?

It depends on the quality/design of your crossover.

There is no objective difference using 2 amps instead of one. There are no speakers that can differentiate where electrons come from. 

@roadcykler Wrote:

There is no objective difference using 2 amps instead of one. There are no speakers that can differentiate where electrons come from. 

See here last page BI-AMPLIFICATION. 😎

Mike

@roadcykler 

There is no objective difference using 2 amps instead of one. There are no speakers that can differentiate where electrons come from. 

While I can’t often justify passive bi-amplification’s cost, I have to disagree with your statement, somewhat.  @ditusa posted a paper from Lansing Heritage which may seem very old but some still has merit today. 

Your statement would be true IF every solid state amplifier were a perfect voltage source but they are not.  The behavior of each amp when providing current varies significantly. 

My experience with amps and speakers and as a speaker builder and investigator lead me to believe that bi-amplification could have measurable benefits. 

In my mind, the issues come from the tendency of speakers to have dips in the impedance curve, especially at the mid bass.  By dips I mean anything less than 4.00 Ohms.  I think these dips are audible, even with a typical modern SS amp with high damping factors.  I think in some cases speakers are even deliberately tuned to have a dip so they are more "discerning" of amplifier "quality." 

These impedance dips can lead to a softening of the DC voltage rails, and provide a path for intermodulation distortion to creep in.  By having a separate amplifier for the "high impedance" part of the speaker you eliminate the bass current draw from modulating the rest of the output.  

Next, there’s the issue of total power demand.  While passive bi-amping does not change the expected voltage swing of each amplifier, the current draw of each amp, and therefore the power, does get reduced significantly due to the high or low pass filter’s increasing impedance away from the crossover point. 

Having said all of that, from a pure efficiency and cost point of view, active bi-amping spanks all of those for benefits of current and power delivery.   Another approach which I feel raises the value of bi-amplification is to use flavorful tubes for the mid-treble and solid state for the bass.  You get the best of both worlds, while eliminating the impedance matching issues of tube amps.   If you put a single cap in series with your tube amp you can really get outstanding dynamic range improvements. 

Hello hardhattg !  Bi amping is worth it if you add an electronic crossover to your system along with the extra power amp. An electronic crossover lets you get a 24 db/octive (very steep) crossover that keeps the tweeter and the woofer from unwanted overlaping each other AND lets you get rid of the (generally low quality) crossovers in the speaker cabinets. It will connect after the preamp and feed the power amps. If you choose a DBX 223, you get to play with the levels and crossover points. Great Fun!  There are different models with different connectors. be sure to get the type you need.

So, open up the speaker cabinets, remove the existing passive crossover parts. Connect the woofer directly to the old terminals (if they have magnetic parts, replace with (at least) brass terminals. Connect the tweeter wires to a new pair of non-ferrous terminals. (If you experiment a lot, add a 20 mfd or larger  high quality capacitor in series with the tweeter to keep the buzz out if you happen to make any sort of mistake when the power amps are on.)  Your power amps now connect directly to the speakers, allowing their damping factor to influence the drivers, vastly increasing their ability to control distortion. The difference will delight you. (High quality cables will really show up now.) Enjoy the music.