How to connect biamp amplifier to triamp speakers?

[madeinstein]

Hi what is the right way to connect biamp amplifier to triamp speakers? I'm connecting Yamaha 863 to Epos M16 speakers.

Should the main cable go to high/middle and the second one to low frequencies?

 

[Anonymous]

Yes, that is how I would do it

 

[Andrew Everard]

Y'see, I'd go for treble on one amp channel, and mid/bass on t'other.

 

[madeinstein]

Neon K:Yes, that is how I would do it

Thanks. With this setup I find the Bass driver very quiet in comparison to the Tweeter and Bass/Midrange Driver. See the speaker component overview on this page

Any idea what it might be? It's a bit late now to test it with louder music

but I need to check all the settings in AV Receiver. The biamp function in advanced menu is ON, but maybe there is special setting somewhere else for bass?

 

[madeinstein]

Andrew Everard:Y'see, I'd go for treble on one amp channel, and mid/bass on t'other.

Andrew so I should connect mid/bass with links and leave treble separately on the speaker side and then connect Front L/R channels to treble and biamp L/R channels to mid/bass?

 

[Anonymous]

Madeinstein,
The amp you are using is a home theatre receiver are you sure it has 4 output channels for the front speakers ? It may have front left and right, and rear left and right ? To Bi-Amp you need 2 front left outputs and 2 front right outputs - else all you can do is Bi-Wire your speakers.

To Bi-Wire your speakers you connect 2 cables from your front left - both go to the left speaker. Likewise for the Right.

At each speaker you then have a choice - I said 1 cable to treble and mid, and 1 to bass. Andrew said 1 to treble, and 1 to mid/bass. Either way connect I speaker cable (red lead to treble(+) and black to treble(-). Connect the other lead to red Bass(+) and black Bass(-).

In my case you now have to remove the metal strap links between the mid and bass terminals. In Andrew's case you would remove the links between the treble and mid terminals. The links are shown below:

Again I think you may be using your speaker terminals on your amp incorrectly, but since I don't know that model I'm not sure.

Crossover: Multi-element medium-order, at 150 Hz and 3 kHz. Tweeter has four components in a 3rd order filter at 3 kHz crossover, using film-caps throughout and a metal oxide resistor.

Terminal Panel: Tri-wirable. Can be single or double wired by removing shorting links provided.

 

[madeinstein]

Neon, thanks for the detailed info. Yamaha 863 although it's an AV Receiver it does support biamping. There is an option in advanced sound setting to convert surround speaker ouputs to biamp ones.

I've got everything connected using QED Silver XT cable (4 cables to each speaker) so I believe the connection is ok.

Really my question was more about which link to leave (mid-low or mid-high) and whether the main cables should go to treble and biamp cables to bass or opposite.

My main concern is that I haven't notice big difference between biamp and normal connection and I was hoping that it will make a difference that I could hear.

How does biamping works in general? I understand that amplification is split between more narrow frequencies and because of that amp doesn't have to work that hard to amplify signal and should do better job. At which frequency there is a split between this channels? Does it depend on the speaker or the amplifier?

 

[Anonymous]

M.

I didn't think you'd wired it incorrectly, but I gave the instructions anyway just int case - and it that vane you should probably check all is in the correct 'phase' also - that is all the reds are +, and all the blacks are -, at both your speaker and at your amp.

I gave the detailed description because you said the bass was low - really single wiring, or bi-amping, the level should be the same, so I think the problem is at the amp end - you may need to check those Advanced settings again.

Finally the mid-range of sound is arguably the most important to listening to most music - and the Bass speaker draws the most current and power, thus that is why I separate the mid and Bass so the mid is not adversely affected by large current draws due to the Bass. I wonder why Andrew suggested the other way? Yes separating Treble from the others may make it sweeter, but this is a very small part of our hearing range, especially in a 3-driver speaker where the tweeter may start at a higher frequency than a tweeter in a 2-driver set-up. Ultimately once you've got your amp working so the sound levels are correct again you should try both options and tell us what you hear.

You are right that the change may not be all that great - maybe for some speakers it won't even be noticable, but I know in my experience, bi-wiring my CDM1s was a good as a major amp upgrade!

.

 

[madeinstein]

Thanks your initial comment was very helpful as I'm quite new to the whole thing.

I've created a new topic about the speaker test, let me know what are your thoughts about this. What's the best way to test amp/speaker.

I also agree with you that it looks like an amp issue.