Received a new power amp today - how do I bi-amp please?

[amarocknrollstar]

Hey all, added a Rotel RB-850 to my collection today. How do I go about bi-amping it with my RB/RC 870. What connections go where (as the pre-amp is pretty limited) and which power amp is best for tweeter/bass please. Cheers Stevie

 

[Andrew Everard]

Do a search for biamp, and you'll find several threads covering this.

 

[amarocknrollstar]

Thanks Andy - checked that but just a little concerned as the rotel has not so many in/outputs.
Will check again.
Cheers

 

[amarocknrollstar]

Anyone? Really struggling with this. I understand the bi-wire process and with regards bi-amping I understand how to link up to the speakers. my problem is that I can not for the life of me figure out how to link the two power amps to the pre and if I require a cross-over.
Cheers

 

[Anonymous]

How many pre-out sockets do you have on your pre-amp?

 

[Andrew Everard]

No, you don't need a crossover.

So are you saying your preamp only has one set of preamp outputs, and the power amps dont't have inputs and link output sockets, so you can't daisy-chain them - ie interconnects from preamp to one power amp, then another set on to the other?

(Sorry, can't remember back to these products well enough to know the answer to these points)

If all the above is so, you will have to get some cables made up with one phono plug on one end - for the preamp - and two on the other end (for the two power amps). Such cables exist, but they tend to be of the inexpensive patch cable kind, and if you believe cables can influence the sound you may want something better.

The alternative is to get a couple of Y-adaptors for the preamp, which split the output into from one socket into two sockets. Again these usually come in the cheap patch-cable type, but places such as Maplin sell hard-wired phono splitters, assuming there's enough space on the rear of the preamp around the preouts to accommodate them

 

[amarocknrollstar]

Thanks guys for the input. Have successfully now "daisy-chained" the amps. Not about the results - some tweeking needed I reckon. Got the 850 driving the bass and the 870 driving the tweeters. Not sure yet about the sound. Scared to turn it up in all honesty!

 

[Andrew Everard]

Is the 870 the more powerful of the two, as I assume it must be from the model numbers? If so, use that on the bass, with the 850 on the tweeters.

 

[amarocknrollstar]

Guess what prize tw*t forgot to remove the biwire bridges from the speakers!

 

[JoelSim]

Ouch...big bang?