Confused about bi-amping

[admin_exported]

Hi all

First time on this forum. I've been reading about the pros and cons of bi-amping and there's a lot of discussions about that already so don't want to go over that again here. However, in reading more widely about methods of bi-amping some seem to suggest that its simply a case of removing the bridging strips on the speaker terminals and connecting straight from the amps. Others talk about disconnecting the passive crossovers inside the speakers and using external crossovers and having to calibrate the crossover frequency etc etc. One thing I read said that if you don't use an external crossover then it isn't proper bi-amping.

I'm confused - do I need to mess about with an external crossover or not...?

Thanks!

 

[Anonymous]

Well, the biamping that I think most people in these parts understand is simply the use of two amps of the same gain connected to the high and low frequencies respectively (remembering to remove the speaker binding post bridges of course).

Anything beyond that and I've certainly got no understanding!

 

[Andrew Everard]

jgw911:One thing I read said that if you don't use an external crossover then it isn't proper bi-amping.
I'm confused - do I need to mess about with an external crossover or not...?

With an external crossover it then becomes active operation.

No, you don't need an external crossover to biamp.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the speedy replies guys! Very helpful advice.

 

[up the music]

Biamping is as your first description. Remove the jumpers between bass and tweeter units on the speakers. Run 2 sets of speaker cable from 2 power amps fed the sane signal, one run to bass, the other to tweeters.
In biamping the amp comes ahead of the crossover in the signal chain, and the crossover is designed to handle speaker level inputs and feed the speakers directly.

Biamp Chain = Pre Amp --> Power Amps --> Crossover --> Drive Unit

Active systems tend be more upmarket and somewhat rarer. Here the signal is fed to the crossover at line level immediately after the pre amp. The active crossover then splits the signal to be fed to seperate power amps for each speaker driver.

Active Chain = Pre Amp --> Crossover --> Power Amps --> Drive Unit