To bi-amp B&W 802n or not

@itzhak1969,

Not all B&W speakers require lots of power. I’ve owned their 6, 7 and 8 series speakers over the years. You should do your research before generalizing a brand that makes a wide range of speakers.

Big speakers usually performs better when they are fed with decent power. The 800 being their flagship speakers ‘designed’ to be driven by a high output amp. You don’t feel the need for a sub with 800’s, plenty of low bass with fabulous mid’s and high’s from a pair of speakers once they are setup properly :-)

The main problem with B&W speakers is that they are very inefficient and need a lot of power to perform at its best I really dont understand why they design their speakers that way ,for me it’s a big NO for this brand.

@itzhak1969,

I used 601 mono’s for Low Frequencies and stereo VT-80 for mid’s and high’s. 

@lalitk

Sorry but I don’t understand how you can bi-amp with McIntosh 601’s mono,
Mono is for one speaker and if you want to bi-amp speakers you need 2 mono’s for each speaker total of 4 mono’s for a pair of speakers ?

Before trying bi-amp try first to change the stock jumpers of the speakers with more quality hi-end ones you will be surprise how it can improve the sound.

Thanks to everyone for you input.  I will give your ideas a try,

@vwquest
Biwiring vs Bi-amp vs Singlewire
Since you have everything on hand why not experiment and let your ears decide, its our hobby isn't it?

Erik,
The MC 252 has 250 watts per channel.  This is sufficient power for an N802 for music.  Adding another amp which the OP doesn't have other than the Carver plus a processor or external crossover doesn't guarantee results that would improve upon the MC 252 alone.

DRC,s have their plus and minus issues.  To me they are like a lot of the drugs advertised on TV.  The cure with attendant side effects is worse than the disease.

Proper room placement and room treatments when required are a better option.

Biwiring may or may not be the best option.  I am currently setup biwired but prefer my tube amp single wired with the supplied BW jumpers.  The OP should experiment with with what he has available first.

@vwquest, 

Congratulations on your upgrade. While I don’t own 802N but I have some experience with bi-amping my 800D2’s.  As you know, 800D’s is a slightly bigger speaker and best driven with a higher output Amplifier. 

To further add to @rhljazz point, simply adding two separate brand of amps would not yield the desired results. Did you check the gain on these amps? I have tried and failed to achieve desired sound by feeding the bass region of B&W’s with a Class A/B amps in bi-amping mode. The amps were McIntosh 601’s mono. The MC601’s just didn’t had the enough juice to drive down the bass with authority. I tried this with McIntosh MEN crossover in the chain. However, 601’s performed admirably well when they were bi-wired to single speaker. 

If you must bi-amp, try a Class D amp with at least 400W in 4ohm load spec for bass and put MC252 for mid’s and high’s duties. The MC252 is a very clean, detailed sounding amp. It will drive your mid’s and high’s fabulously. I would recommend trying Red Dragon S500 or Bel Canto 600M’s to drive the bass of your 802N. 

If you chose not to bi-amp, then I would suggest the MC252 in a Stereo mode with a one or two subs for desired sound. 

FWIW, I end up pairing my 800D’s with ARC VT-80 and Merrill Audio THOR’s Class D mono’s and I can say unequivocally that my speakers never sounded so good. BTW, I am not using an external crossover. 

Through the whole process, I was patient and knew the kind of sound I am after....the key is to be patient, most people gives up easily 😊

RH, be a little more specific. Have you ever tried my suggestion?

Almost all true full-range speakers benefit from EQ in the bass, but keeping the EQ out of the mid/treble is often desirable by purists.

Best,

E

Erik, seriously do you have any experience with N802's?  You give bad advice re this post.  

Well, there IS a good reason to bi-amp, but may be this combo of amps is not it.

You could add a DSP / EQ to the bass section, which can pay big dividends, while leaving your mid/treble untouched. A beefy class D amp for instance would work really really well there.

For this to work well though you should have the ability to measure the current performance and set EQ parameters. Also, as always, bass EQ works best in concert with bass traps.

Best,

E

N802 owner here.  The crossover to the lower bass terminals is at 350 Hz so two disparate amps will sound exactly like that, a disparate mess.  I've found no advantage to biamping either vertically or horizontally when I had a pair of Classe amps.  One good stereo tube amp of around 100 w works fine or solid state of around 250 w.