Monoblocks vs Vertical bi-amping vs Horizontal bia


In attemps to raise the sonic bar of my system, I'm considering my options which includes using a single stereo amp, mono blocks, or 2 stereo amps in either a vertical or horizontal biamped configuration.

Q1: Who out there has experience in how each of the above scenarios differs from one another. If you read Dennis Had's article on vertical biamping at his Cary web site, you'd think that that is the way to go but how does this differ from monoblocks which accomplish the same thing (i.e. one amp used per channel for all frequencies)?

Q2: In which situations do the various amp scenarios best lend themselves (room size, listening levels, speaker sensitivity and ohm rating etc. etc.)?

Thanks for your input.

Kevinzoe
kevinzoe

Showing 1 response by foreverhifi

I dissagree with the "blanket stements" saying that verticle or horizontal, or whatever is the way to go. It depends on the situation largely. I can easily see where, at times, it would be better to possibly do one or the other.
One possiblity for people to STRONLY consider with full range speakers(especially 3 way speakers), is to biamp using an inexpensive(relatively) ss bass amp on the bottom(if covering mostly only bass down bellow 200hz), and whatever amp matches the sonics of your speakers up top!
For instance, Parasound makes SUPERB amps for bass!!! They've always had very very dyamic and authoritative/well controlled bass from these amps, and they come with a volume control to adjust gain as well!...this makes it perfect for biamping in my oppinion.! You can not only level match the two amps this way much easier, but you can take advantage of the excellent bass response from the amp, and let your midrange and top end be handled by a more "finess" amp up top...tube, SS or otherwise.
I've done Biamping in the past, and I like this option, functionally and cost wise, very much!