Why does bi-amping speakers sound better?


Curious why it sounds better to bi amp speakers vs just running them off one amp?

i am trying to figure out which amp to buy, I am on the fence with bi amp or not.  Speakers are the old infinity kappa 8.1's.  Several years ago when I was married I bi amped my speakers so each speaker was seeing two channels from a parasound hca1500, I think that's the model.... 200w x 2 going to each speaker.  I also tried a single amp powering both speakers so each speaker was seeing 200w x 1.  

is it that I simply doubled the power that resulted in better sound, mostly noticed the low end of the speakers was tighter, more powerful etc.... and obviously I could also play louder.  

Or is is there something about letting one amp not work as hard due to only running high frequencies while the other amp gets to just work on the low end.  

I am 90% sure which brand of amp I want to get, just trying to figure out if I should bi amp or not.

as a example should I go with

two 2 channel amps at 400w x 2 so each speaker would get 400x2

or should I go with a single 800w stereo amp so each speaker sees the same 800w, just with one channel of a amp



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Showing 3 responses by randy-11

the main effect is that each amp will drive a smaller load, so the incidence of clipping is reduced

for a manf., the amp can be tuned to the needs for each type of driver
I see a KEF in your future...

The very best design would be to put a DAC in the speaker with the amp, and just send control signals to it.

not sure the realization is quite there yet
the bass could only seem weak if the amp runs out of power - and that is less likely when bi-amping

monoblocks & bi-amping both are expensive as pointed out above - you need more transformers for the power supply

one driver, one amp is the ultimate design - you just have to create a cost- and SQ- effective realization

not that amps are a major determinant of SQ compared to speakers, room and source recordings anyway