Monoblocks vs Bi-amping


I am considering buying 2 Spectron Musician 3s to drive my Revel Ultima Salon2s. Which is do you recommend 1) monoblock configuration or 2) both amps set up in stereo, one driving mid-ranges/tweteters of both speakers & the other driving the woofers? I would think bi-amping would be superior since the each amp would see a more stable impedance profile.

Thoughts?
brianyoon000

Showing 1 response by almarg

You'll want to read the post dated 2-19-09 in this thread, by the noted designer Steve McCormack. Among other things, he makes a strong case for why vertical biamping is generally preferable to the horizontal biamping arrangement you are contemplating.

Re the bridged monoblock possibility, if you don't necessarily need the added power capability that would provide, probably the only way to judge is by listening, as was suggested.

As you probably realize, bridged mode will cause the amplifiers to see the speaker impedance (6 ohms nominal, 3.7 ohms minimum at 90Hz) divided by a factor of 2 (in other words, the amplifier would see 1.85 ohms at 90Hz). Your amplifier can certainly handle that, but it would stand to reason that the character of its sound might be affected by that difference, in unpredictable ways.

Also, in vertical biamp mode both channels of each amp are amplifying identical signals, while in monoblock mode the two channels would be amplifying signals that are inverted internally, relative to each other. Again, hard to predict what the consequences would be, but it stands to reason that there would be consequences.

Regards,
-- Al