power amp question

[smuggs]

if you have speakers that can not be bi-wired, can you still add a power amp and wire off that. or is it the pre/inter amp for top end and power amp for bottom end.

i ask this because im thinking in 8-10 weeks to grab a s/hand alpha9 power amp off ebay that throwing the MA BR5'S onto the home cinema side and buying a pair of standmounts that will work well anywhere something like the acraydis dm1's but they are not bi-wireable

 

[AL13N]

smuggs:if you have speakers that can not be bi-wired, can you still add a power amp and wire off that.
Yes, as long as you have a preamp/integrated amp with preout connection/source with variable output to control the power amp.

 

[Dan Turner]

You can only connect one amp to each speaker if they are not bi-wireable (i.e. one stereo power amp connecting to both or 2 mono-block amps; one to each). If you purchase the alpha 9p the you can connect these to your single-wireable speakers, but then you'd have to connect the pre-outs of your (I presume you have an..) alpha 9 integrated amp to the 9p - hence bypassing and not using the power section of the alpha 9 integrated.

 

[smuggs]

thanks guys i thought my alpha 9 might onlt send the low frequencys to the power amp. so that is good to heaR.

 

[Anonymous]

"if you have speakers that can not be bi-wired, can you still add a power amp and wire off that. or is it the pre/inter amp for top end and power amp for bottom end."

Just my personal opinion...with your pre/inter amp for top and power amp for bottom end may result unbalance tones output as both of the amp may have different ohms, watts and speed.

 

[smuggs]

i have got in a right mess understanding what a power amp does then.

i thought the pre amp or amp being used as a pre amp just cleans the signal and supplys all the top end and midrange and then the it passes the low end signal to the power amp where it can pass a faster, punchy and more precise signal to the speaker. Hense i asked if i could use the combo if i choose non biwireable speakers

 

[Bodfish]

smuggs:

i have got in a right mess understanding what a power amp does then.

i thought the pre amp or amp being used as a pre amp just cleans the signal and supplys all the top end and midrange and then the it passes the low end signal to the power amp where it can pass a faster, punchy and more precise signal to the speaker. Hense i asked if i could use the combo if i choose non biwireable speakers

That is a pickle! If you are using a pre amp and a power amp, the pre amp does nothing more than control access to the source and add gain via the volume pots. The power amp re-produces the entire frequency range. It is the crossover in the speaker that splits the frequency range between the tweeter and bass drive units (in a two way design).

If you use an integrated amp and power amp to bi-amp the speaker. In this set up, the integrated and the power amp still reproduce the entire frequency range and the splitting of the signal is done by the cross over in the speaker again.

Hope this helps!

 

[smuggs]

so if you had biwire speakers you would take all four cables from the power amp so you always what ever speaker you have end up with no speakers coming from the unit being used as a pre amp just volume control.

 

[Bodfish]

No!

It depends entirely on what you mean by 'the unit being used as a pre amp'.

If you mean a proper dedicated pre amplifier then you cannot connect it to any type of speaker, full stop.

If you mean using the pre-outs of an integrated amplifer to connect a power amplifier then you could use just the power amp and connect the speakers (single wired or bi-wired) or you could bi-amp the biwire-able speakers using the integrated amp and the power amp together.

 

[SteveR750]

I am thinking about adding a K2 power amp, but what is the best configuration? Would it be set up as one power amp per channel (i.e. using the power amp section of the intagrated for say LH and the separate power amp for RH) or use them in one driving the LF terminals and the other driving the HF terminals?

I assumed the former set up for non bi-wirable speakers, and the latter for those that have separate LF and HF terminals. What benefit is there to each power amp by splitting the frequency range over which it drives? I can understand the benefit of running them as two mono-blocs as effectively you can double the power output per channel, which can only be a 'good thing'. I don't understand what benefit there is to a power amp to only be driving either the LF or HF driver.....

Is it possible to use the K2 combo in mono bloc configuration (I always wanted to do this with my NAD C352 as I think it would have provided enough heat for the whole street....)

 

[Bodfish]

SteveR750:

I am thinking about adding a K2 power amp, but what is the best configuration? Would it be set up as one power amp per channel (i.e. using the power amp section of the intagrated for say LH and the separate power amp for RH) or use them in one driving the LF terminals and the other driving the HF terminals?

I assumed the former set up for non bi-wirable speakers, and the latter for those that have separate LF and HF terminals. What benefit is there to each power amp by splitting the frequency range over which it drives? I can understand the benefit of running them as two mono-blocs as effectively you can double the power output per channel, which can only be a 'good thing'. I don't understand what benefit there is to a power amp to only be driving either the LF or HF driver.....

Is it possible to use the K2 combo in mono bloc configuration (I always wanted to do this with my NAD C352 as I think it would have provided enough heat for the whole street....)

Generally you'd use the integrated for the high frequency and the power amp for the lows. No harm in experimenting here though.

The benefit is that each 'leg' of the amplification only see's one part of the crossover in terms of the load and frequency range it is being asked to cover. Imagine an integrated amp - it 'see's' both elements of the crossover. When you bi-amp (say as described above) the integrated amp only sees the load presented by the treble element of the crossover. The idea is the amp has (generally speaking) is less stressed by only being asked to deal with one part of the crossover.

Personally speaking I think bi-wiring is over-rated and speakers which offer a split crossover only really come into their own when you want to bi-amp them.

 

[SteveR750]

What about running as two mono blocs? This approach seems a lot more attractive, especially if you like listening loud with insensitive speakers...

 

[Bodfish]

You need to be a little careful if you are running stereo amps which have a switch to convert them to a 'bridged' monobloc as opposed to a design that has been built from the ground up as a monobloc. There is somehting about the bridged configuration which actuallylimits the speaker choice in terms of their ease of drive - many amps with this configuration specifically state that you should limit your speaker choice to those in the range of 8-16 ohms. Check with the manual or manufacturer.

So in your case, you'd have your integrated amp connected to two stereo amps configured to run as monoblocs? Sounds like overkill to me to be honest. Again, not sure about the specifics of the Roksan as regards this but I'm sure someone else will have a view on that.

 

[SteveR750]

Looking at the K2 specs I don't think it cant be bridged.

The NAD amps that I owned (3130 for about 15 years, then a C352) could be bridged, converting the power amp to one mono and then adding a second PA to give you separate LH and RH power amps fed by the pre-amp section of the integrated. From memory NAD claimed a doubling of the power output per channel in this set up into a standard 8 ohm impedance.