2. amps-preamps
  3. 1046550232

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 2 responses by hifiho

hifiho
50 posts
 
OK... Here's how I see it:

Vertical bi-amping would involve 2 stereo amps, not necessarily "stacked", but the left channel of amp 1 would drive the tweeters of speaker 1, and the right channel of amp 1 would drive the tweeters of speaker 2. Horizontal bi-amping would have the left channel of amp 1 driving the tweeter of speaker 1, and the right channel driving the woofer of the same.

I've always biamped horizontal, just in case of anomolies or minor differences in the amplifiers or power supplies/ transformers themselves. This would seem to have less impact on the width and focus of the soundstage if one of the amplifiers wasn't quite "on step" with the other. Of course this means that the amplifier driving your woofers is getting a world-class workout, while the high frequency amp is barely warming up.

While we're on the topic...
I'm currently using a pair of Anthem MCA2's to biamplify my NHT 3.3's (horizontal). I'm considering purchasing an Anthem AMP2se to amplify my mid/tweeters, and would appreciate advice and/or suggestions before I embark on this experiment. If things don't balance out well, I'll most likely purchase a SECOND AMP2se to drive the woofers as well.

Monoblocks x 4 would be the way to go, if cash were no object.

My 2 cents.
David.
hifiho
50 posts
 
Chucker--
Thanks for the correction, and making the explaination easier. I AM amplified horizontal. My explainations were backwards.

I had my 6 year-old son bouncing on my lap while responding to the post, while at the same time questioning me about how to get his GameCube to switch between 1 and 2 player mode..

I had a bit of a digital dillema, with all of those 1's and 2's bouncing around in my head. Can you say "binary code"? Add to that, caffeine "Jitter". Maybe I should convert to analog....

Hmmm.
Happy listening all!
More to discover