Bi-amping for beginners / stereo sacrifice

[admin_exported]

Having read numerous posts about the benefits or not of bi-amping, I am intrigued and in the interests of experimentation would like to give this a try with what equipment I have to hand, namely:

Technics SU-V900 100WPC Integrated Amp

Technics SU-V670 90WPC Integrated Amp

Monitor Audio BR2

Is this even possible/advisable with the above? Or given my lack of knowledge, should I leave well alone?

Google and some old threads on this forum suggest that it just might work.

Any advice, particularly with regard to connections, would be v much appreciated.

 

[Anonymous]

Stuart.
Read the thread, using 2 intergrated amps for biamping by kelly rowlands. Read the post that andrew everard wrote,
it tells exactly how to do it. The thread is back on the first page now.

 

[Andrew Everard]

It's here.

And it'll work - in the electrical sense, anyway. Whether it'll sound anything other than horrendous is an entirely different matter.

 

[Anonymous]

Andrew i have to say my 2 biamped C/A 640a v2 sound great, the image is right in the center, stereo imaging from left
to right is great, the sound is crisp and detailed and the bass is great to.You should here rodrigo y gabriela ,you'd think
they were in the same room as you.

 

[Anonymous]

I hooked it all up as per the Kelly Rowland thread, the only difference being that I used the Power Amp Direct input on the second amp to keep the path as clean as possible.

And the results are quite staggering. The best way I can describe it is that the instruments now have the space to 'breathe', and the sound is very much more detailed and crisper in every department. The soundstage is much greater, where as before it could sound 'fuddled'. I had quite a few different types of cable to hand, and being able to tailor to them to the bass and treble was a definite advantage.

As will be evident, I am no expert. However, the separation of upper and lower frequencies (correct terminology?) can be distinctly heard in the sound produced. To my ears, it has 'untangled' the soundstage and made an immense improvement to the single amp set up.

I should add that I went into this little experiment with an open mind. I should also add that I am probably in the unusual position of having two integrated amps of similar quality. If one amp was superior to the other then I would have thought it likely that the single amp option would be the better of the two. Likewise, if I was setting up a new system then it would probably make more sense to spend the budget on one superior amp, rather than two inferior. But for anyone in the same position as me, I would highly recommend giving this a try. The second amp would likely fetch less than £100 on ebay, but I think I would have to spend an awful lot more than this to effect a similar improvement in quality to the one achieved today.

Sooner or later I will demote this outdated kit to a second system and move into the 21st century, but for now I have given it a new lease of life.