Hi All
As a novice with relativly good kit can anybody tell me the good things about bi-amping ?
All help welcome
Hexar
As a novice with relativly good kit can anybody tell me the good things about bi-amping ?
All help welcome
Hexar
Bi - Amping ?
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Tonya
Well-known member
Presuming you are a novice at this, let me talk you through the science bit.
In a modern domestic loudspeaker box, there's a bass element called a woofer and a high frequency driver called a tweeter, both operating in their respective frequency ranges. The full range loudspeaker signal enters the box through the rear terminals whereby it passes into a device known as a crossover, which is a simple passive dvice that filters the high and low frequency signals and passes them to their respective elements. This is because bass frquencies cause the cone of the woofer to resonate quite slowly while high frequencies demand far faster resonations. As the poor loudspeaker cone cannot do both, the job is separated into two (or more) drivers. Of course, the crossover frequencies are determined and set to match the various driver's own characteristics.
In professional setups, the same principle of physics apply, but the crossover frequencies are determined at line (signal) level and using an electronic crossover, are infinately variable. So you can select the crossover point of a bass driver, that is to say the "cutoff point" of the higher frquency band, to be at a certain point, after which that part of the signal spectrum will be diverted to the tweeter unit. When properly calibrated, a so called active crossover setup will sonically outperform the passive one. This is due to the fact that the bass amp will only be reproducing the lower frequencies and not have to cope with the high end as well, as this is taken care of by the mid/high amp. So by bi-amping your setup, it will almost definately sound cleaner with less distortion, but you will have to have four amplifiers instead of the traditional two. In a big PA rig, tri and quad amping is not unusual, where dedicated elements take care of the sub-bass and ultra high end (squawkers) respectively. The setback with domestic bi-amping, apart from the price, is the fact that as you are using double the amount of amplifiers, you may notice a slight increase in ambient electronic noise (hiss) unless you are using top notch hardware.
You can tell if your speakers are already prepared for bi-amping if they have four terminals instead of two at the rear, usually being bridged by a small metal strip. You will need to know the crossover frequency ranges before you bi-amp as you don't want to send out of range signals to the drivers in question. If you're handy with a soldering iron, you can make any loudspeaker bi-amp ready by simply bypassing the internal passive crossover and terminating both the woofer and tweeter with screw contacts at the rear of the speaker cabinet. Again knowing the frequency response of the drivers is paramount as is the correct calibration of your electronic crossover unit.
I remember using a set of Philips (!) monitor speakers many moons ago that accepted a line out signal instead of a standard loudspeaker voltage, and they had two amps and an electronic crossover built in. They sounded amazing for their diminutive size.
Some manufacturers still use the same principle, for years I used a small set of Roland monitors that even had a digital signal input, where you could select which channel the loudspeaker would reproduce, then pass "the other channel" to the second speaker.
I think that just about covers it, I hope the above helps!
In a modern domestic loudspeaker box, there's a bass element called a woofer and a high frequency driver called a tweeter, both operating in their respective frequency ranges. The full range loudspeaker signal enters the box through the rear terminals whereby it passes into a device known as a crossover, which is a simple passive dvice that filters the high and low frequency signals and passes them to their respective elements. This is because bass frquencies cause the cone of the woofer to resonate quite slowly while high frequencies demand far faster resonations. As the poor loudspeaker cone cannot do both, the job is separated into two (or more) drivers. Of course, the crossover frequencies are determined and set to match the various driver's own characteristics.
In professional setups, the same principle of physics apply, but the crossover frequencies are determined at line (signal) level and using an electronic crossover, are infinately variable. So you can select the crossover point of a bass driver, that is to say the "cutoff point" of the higher frquency band, to be at a certain point, after which that part of the signal spectrum will be diverted to the tweeter unit. When properly calibrated, a so called active crossover setup will sonically outperform the passive one. This is due to the fact that the bass amp will only be reproducing the lower frequencies and not have to cope with the high end as well, as this is taken care of by the mid/high amp. So by bi-amping your setup, it will almost definately sound cleaner with less distortion, but you will have to have four amplifiers instead of the traditional two. In a big PA rig, tri and quad amping is not unusual, where dedicated elements take care of the sub-bass and ultra high end (squawkers) respectively. The setback with domestic bi-amping, apart from the price, is the fact that as you are using double the amount of amplifiers, you may notice a slight increase in ambient electronic noise (hiss) unless you are using top notch hardware.
You can tell if your speakers are already prepared for bi-amping if they have four terminals instead of two at the rear, usually being bridged by a small metal strip. You will need to know the crossover frequency ranges before you bi-amp as you don't want to send out of range signals to the drivers in question. If you're handy with a soldering iron, you can make any loudspeaker bi-amp ready by simply bypassing the internal passive crossover and terminating both the woofer and tweeter with screw contacts at the rear of the speaker cabinet. Again knowing the frequency response of the drivers is paramount as is the correct calibration of your electronic crossover unit.
I remember using a set of Philips (!) monitor speakers many moons ago that accepted a line out signal instead of a standard loudspeaker voltage, and they had two amps and an electronic crossover built in. They sounded amazing for their diminutive size.
Some manufacturers still use the same principle, for years I used a small set of Roland monitors that even had a digital signal input, where you could select which channel the loudspeaker would reproduce, then pass "the other channel" to the second speaker.
I think that just about covers it, I hope the above helps!
plastic penguin
Well-known member
hexar:
Hi All
As a novice with relativly good kit can anybody tell me the good things about bi-amping ?
All help welcome
Hexar
What kit do you have? I assume yours has pre-outs for bi-amping? A power will give you a far cleaner current from via the power amp, enhancing the bass definition and detail. The brands that benefit from bi-amping is Arcam and Rotel in particular, otherwise I concur with Tonya.
I have asked Andrew recently whether What Hi-Fi could do a Group test of integrated/power amps in one of their editions. I think that would be cracker as they haven't (according to Andrew) initiated such a test for years.
Hi All
As a novice with relativly good kit can anybody tell me the good things about bi-amping ?
All help welcome
Hexar
What kit do you have? I assume yours has pre-outs for bi-amping? A power will give you a far cleaner current from via the power amp, enhancing the bass definition and detail. The brands that benefit from bi-amping is Arcam and Rotel in particular, otherwise I concur with Tonya.
I have asked Andrew recently whether What Hi-Fi could do a Group test of integrated/power amps in one of their editions. I think that would be cracker as they haven't (according to Andrew) initiated such a test for years.
I second the request for a pre/power amplification test! I'd like to see a review of the Leema Tucana and its partner the Hydra.
VoodooDoctor:I second the request for a pre/power amplification test! I'd like to see a review of the Leema Tucana and its partner the Hydra.
I third it.
I would like to see biamping tested against pre/power too.
I would do this myself but because of the positioning of my system/cables it would take me ages to swap things over
I third it.
I would like to see biamping tested against pre/power too.
I would do this myself but because of the positioning of my system/cables it would take me ages to swap things over
plastic penguin
Well-known member
JoelSim:
VoodooDoctor:I second the request for a pre/power amplification test! I'd like to see a review of the Leema Tucana and its partner the Hydra.
I third it.
I would like to see biamping tested against pre/power too.
I would do this myself but because of the positioning of my system/cables it would take me ages to swap things over
I think we both brought the subject up before Xmas and Andrew said he'd have a word with the right department.
VoodooDoctor:I second the request for a pre/power amplification test! I'd like to see a review of the Leema Tucana and its partner the Hydra.
I third it.
I would like to see biamping tested against pre/power too.
I would do this myself but because of the positioning of my system/cables it would take me ages to swap things over
I think we both brought the subject up before Xmas and Andrew said he'd have a word with the right department.
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