bi-amping.which way is best.

[admin_exported]

I believe that bi-amping can be done with either of the following methods.

1 amp for the H/F and 1 for the L/F OR

1 amp for right channel and 1 amp for the left.

Is this correct?

is one method better than the other?

set -up is already bi-wired btw.

thanks in anticipation.

 

[Anonymous]

One amp for HF and another for the LF. There's been a few posts about this - I think Andrew had a rather nice explanation including piccies a couple of months ago. Out of interest, what are you going to bi-amp and what with?

 

[Anonymous]

I've got Primare stuff.pre and power,CD31,Chord Epic super twin,all hooked up with Chord Anthem2 balanced connections,dedicated mains supply,mains conditioner and power leads.Leema Zyp's and Quad L sub.

 

[Miker]

I've just had my new Cyrus kit delivered and set up, Dave from Moorgate Acoustics wired one amp for HF and the other for LF.

 

[Gwyndy]

[quote user="mohawk"]
I believe that bi-amping can be done with either of the following methods.

1 amp for the H/F and 1 for the L/F OR

1 amp for right channel and 1 amp for the left.

Is this correct?

is one method better than the other?

set -up is already bi-wired btw.

thanks in anticipation.
[/quote]

I believe that the one for right channel one for left channel idea is mainly used when Bi-amping with two monobloc amplifiers rather than two stereo amplifiers.
I use the more powerful of my two amps (LK140) for bass and the less powerful (LK85) for treble, not that I think it makes much difference so long as the gain settings match.

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="mohawk"]
I believe that bi-amping can be done with either of the following methods.

1 amp for the H/F and 1 for the L/F OR

1 amp for right channel and 1 amp for the left.

Is this correct?

is one method better than the other?

set -up is already bi-wired btw.

thanks in anticipation.
[/quote]

no , you cant use one for the right and one for the left unless you are using 2 power amps to mono block.if you have an integrated amp and a power amp then you should use one amp for the tweeters ( usually the integrated), and one for the woofers. Andrew posted on this recently.

 

[Anonymous]

As most of the power used tends to be at the bass end of things the higher power amp should be used on the bass, but at high levels without an electronic crossover you will run the risk of bass clipping from the lower power treble amp damaging the tweeters.

OK if you already have the amplifiers lying around but IMO better results are achieved by using one higher quality amplifier.

 

[Anonymous]

I will have 1 pre-amp and 2 power amps ,so should 1 power -amp per channel be ok?

note. this should be read in conjunction with Fraziels post.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm assuming you're talking about two identical stereo power amps in which case...
Either way will work fine. Conventional wisdom suggests one for bass and one for treble and you should certainly take some heed of that. Some people have done it the other way too. Probably won't make a vast difference to be honest - you should get slightly better headroom by splitting the bass, but you'll probably get nicer mid-range and treble the other way - I'm guessing as I've not tried it.
You might be able to benefit from shorter cable runs with one stereo amp per left/right channel and that might be important to you.

 

[Andrew Everard]

[quote user="Gwyndy"]I believe that the one for right channel one for left channel idea is mainly used when Bi-amping with two monobloc amplifiers rather than two stereo amplifiers. [/quote]

You can't biamp using two monoblocs. You'd need four.

 

[JoelSim]

Think about this rationally and using one for HF and one for LF makes sense.

Using the power amp to run the LF means that the preamp's HF signal is uncluttered. As long as the amps are working together then this can only be beneficial.

I do it and it's made a big difference to the detail and clarity of my music.

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="JoelSim"]Think about this rationally and using one for HF and one for LF makes sense.

Using the power amp to run the LF means that the preamp's HF signal is uncluttered. As long as the amps are working together then this can only be beneficial.

I do it and it's made a big difference to the detail and clarity of my music.
[/quote]

Ah but the other point of view is that the bass has the biggest current drain on the power supply - so splitting it up means that each power supply has less load to deal with...

To be honest, I strongly suspect that the differences are marginal at best - if I were doing it I would put one for HF and one for LF as that's the perceived wisdom. I'd really hope to experiment one day, but knowing that I have so little time to mess about with such things I'd go for the normal approach first.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Established wisdom - well mine, anyway! - is one amp for HF, one for LF, on the grounds that this set-up means a sudden power demand in the bass doesn't affect the treble as much. Yes, yes, I know both amps are effectively still running full range, but it does seem to work.

 

[Anonymous]

Which just goes to show how you can look at exactly the same thing in two almost identical ways and come up with a different conclusion. Which is why your own ears should always be the final judge 🙂
But for now, unless you have the time/inclination to experiment, go with the normal approach, which as I said, is what I'd do in the absence of too much free time.

 

[John Duncan]

[quote user="Andrew Everard"]Yes, yes, I know both amps are effectively still running full range, but it does seem to work.
[/quote]

Ah but they're not. The physics of the crossover in the speakers means that no HF sound is travelling from the amp that's supplying the LF, and no LF from the amp that supplies the HF, no?

 

[Anonymous]

One amp for HF another for LF all the way. You can have different amps with different power ratings and they will work. You can get adventurous and mix two very different amps one that shines in the top-end the other that has loads of guts and slam.

Downside of one amp for left one for right is that, its very restrictive in nature. Besides, you need two exactly same amps. Not very flexible nor very fail safe.

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="ranjeetrain"]You can have different amps with different power ratings and they will work[/quote]

With the simplistic form of bi-amping being discussed here yes, they will work but it's not a good idea because you will then be limited to the maximum power of the lesser amp.

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="JohnDuncan"][quote user="Andrew Everard"]Yes, yes, I know both amps are effectively still running full range, but it does seem to work.
[/quote]

Ah but they're not. The physics of the crossover in the speakers means that no HF sound is travelling from the amp that's supplying the LF, and no LF from the amp that supplies the HF, no?[/quote]

No. The amplifier is still providing the full range even though it isn't being reproduced by the speaker.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Better if they are gain-matched, otherwise you can get all sorts of imbalance going on

 

[John Duncan]

[quote user="Fingers Lee"]
[quote user="JohnDuncan"][quote user="Andrew Everard"]Yes, yes, I know both amps are effectively still running full range, but it does seem to work.
[/quote]

Ah but they're not. The physics of the crossover in the speakers means that no HF sound is travelling from the amp that's supplying the LF, and no LF from the amp that supplies the HF, no?[/quote]

No. The amplifier is still providing the full range even though it isn't being reproduced by the speaker.
[/quote]

What I mean is that a crossover prevents particular frequencies from travelling round the entire circuit (as opposed to 'stopping' it at the crossover, like a dam), so the signal travelling from amp to speaker only contains the frequencies allowed by that crossover. So in effect each amp is only pumping out the frequencies allowed by that crossover. That's just the way they work. Make sense?

So there really can be no crosstalk between the two signals, and each amp/cable/driver combination can concentrate on their respective frequency ranges.

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="JohnDuncan"]in effect each amp is only pumping out the frequencies allowed by that crossover. .[/quote]

Although no current is flowing at the frequencies rejected by the speaker crossover the amplifier is still providing voltage at those rejected frequencies and will still clip at those rejected frequencies. I hope that's clearer.

 

[John Duncan]

[quote user="Fingers Lee"]
[quote user="JohnDuncan"]in effect each amp is only pumping out the frequencies allowed by that crossover. .[/quote]

Although no current is flowing at the frequencies rejected by the speaker crossover the amplifier is still providing voltage at those rejected frequencies and will still clip at those rejected frequencies. I hope that's clearer.

[/quote]

No, I'm gonna have to look it up now.......

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="Fingers Lee"]
[quote user="ranjeetrain"]You can have different amps with different power ratings and they will work[/quote]

With the simplistic form of bi-amping being discussed here yes, they will work but it's not a good idea because you will then be limited to the maximum power of the lesser amp.

[/quote]
Not sure why would you say that. The only problem with mixing dissimilar amps is gain matching, like Andrew pointed out. In which case I would expect that the person going for the approach knows about the pros and cons of such a setup.

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="ranjeetrain"][quote user="Fingers Lee"]

[quote user="ranjeetrain"]You can have different amps with different power ratings and they will work[/quote]

With the simplistic form of bi-amping being discussed here yes, they will work but it's not a good idea because you will then be limited to the maximum power of the lesser amp.

[/quote]
Not sure why would you say that. The only problem with mixing dissimilar amps is gain matching, like Andrew pointed out. In which case I would expect that the person going for the approach knows about the pros and cons of such a setup.[/quote]

OK, let's say we have 2 amps, one can produce 10V without clipping but the other can produce only 5V before it clips. Both amps are producing the full audio spectrum so if you gain match them the 5V one will be clipping long before the 10V one. This means that the maximum power you can reproduce is limited to the onset of clipping in the 5V one.

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="Fingers Lee"]
[quote user="ranjeetrain"][quote user="Fingers Lee"]

[quote user="ranjeetrain"]You can have different amps with different power ratings and they will work[/quote]

With the simplistic form of bi-amping being discussed here yes, they will work but it's not a good idea because you will then be limited to the maximum power of the lesser amp.

[/quote]
Not sure why would you say that. The only problem with mixing dissimilar amps is gain matching, like Andrew pointed out. In which case I would expect that the person going for the approach knows about the pros and cons of such a setup.[/quote]

OK, let's say we have 2 amps, one can produce 10V without clipping but the other can produce only 5V before it clips. Both amps are producing the full audio spectrum so if you gain match them the 5V one will be clipping long before the 10V one. This means that the maximum power you can reproduce is limited to the onset of clipping in the 5V one.

[/quote]

Absolutely.
You may be better able to drive hideous load type speakers where the limitation may be more current orientated, but I'd certainly prefer the far safer option of one nice big amplifier in this case anyway.