2. amps-preamps
  3. 1021283077

OK to use a 4 or 5 Channel amp to bi-amp?

Hi guys,
I auditioned a pair of Mission 753 Freedoms and decided that they will do for my Harman Kardon Signature 2.0 Pre-amp and Signature 2.1 Five-Channel amp, set up. My question now is. Since I am more into music than home theater, I was thinking of using 4 of the 5 channels in a bi-amped mode. Will this be a good idea? Or does true bi-amping require 4 separate monoblocks? I checked the h/k Signature 2.0, it uses a single large toroidal transformer to feed all 5 channels (which are discrete apart from this).

Other choices I have in mind are:

A) Get another Harman Kardon Signature 2.0 and bi-amp from there (i.e. only use 2 channels in each of the amps)

B) Get 4 Marantz MA700 or MA500 monoblocks to bi-amp.

C) Get a Citation 7.1(which has 4 separate power supplies/transformers for each of the 4 channels and bi-amp from there) http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.pl?ampsmult&1025555427

D) Get a pair of Citation 22s, unbridge them, and bi-amp from there. http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.pl?ampstran&1025564178

I am a bi-amp virgin, so someone teach me the ropes here?
I don't even know where to look for crossovers... and what the heck is the passive vs. active debate?

Cheers!
ben
atzen811

Showing 1 response by macdonj

macdonj's avatar
macdonj
118 posts
 
Atzen,

There have been several threads recently about bi-amping. For active bi-amping you will need an external crossover. As Mdomnick says above, you can use the crossovers installed in your Missions and passively bi-amp. Connect your preamp to your amp in the usual way (use Y-cables if your preamp doesn't have two sets of outputs) and then connect one channel of your 5-channel amp to each set of binding posts on each speaker (using 4 of the 5 channels).

Sure, having monoblocks will sound better. But will it be "better enough" for you to justify the expense? You're the only one who can answer that.
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