Bi-amping??

joseph coulson Silver Member Username: Joe_c Oakwood, Ga Post Number: 486 Registered: Mar-05	Posted on Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 01:02 GMT I have a question for you knowledgeable fellows out there. I am about to get a NAD 3240 int. amp to run my bohlender/graebler z-1's and was wondering if it would be of any advantage to running A channel on the NAD to the highs and B channel to the lows since to speaker has two sets of posts. I really don't know if that is even considered bi-amping? And if it would work what would be the advantages/disavantages to this setup?
Danman Silver Member Username: Danman QUEBEC CANADA Post Number: 209 Registered: Apr-04	Posted on Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 01:06 GMT That is called bi-wiring and it may have some benefit depending on your tyoe of crossover in those speakers. Experiment to see if you notice a difference as I am not aware of those models.
joseph coulson Silver Member Username: Joe_c Oakwood, Ga Post Number: 488 Registered: Mar-05	Posted on Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 01:08 GMT If I run it that way would it increase the ohms or would they stay the same running a+b ?
Danman Silver Member Username: Danman QUEBEC CANADA Post Number: 212 Registered: Apr-04	Posted on Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 01:54 GMT I gather they are at 8 ohms!!!???? This will not effect performance as long as you only use one set of speakers.
KEGGER Gold Member Username: Kegger Warren, MICHIGAN Post Number: 2487 Registered: Dec-03	Posted on Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 07:23 GMT Danman is correct in every statement! And it will not harm your amp or speakers to see if it benefits from this It certainly will not sound worse, only has the possability of sounding better.
Dan Reid Bronze Member Username: Dan_the_man London, Ontario Canada Post Number: 45 Registered: Jun-04	Posted on Monday, July 04, 2005 - 13:01 GMT kegger i have axioms m60's and and avr 125, now i was thinking about buying a more powerful amp, could i use the 125 as a slave amp for the highs (55watts in stereo) and drive the woofers with the more powerful amp?? I'm pretty sure this would work out but i thought most guys do it the other way around and drive the woofers with the power amp or is there any difference?
Frank Abela Silver Member Username: Frank_abela Berkshire UK Post Number: 619 Registered: Sep-04	Posted on Monday, July 04, 2005 - 16:17 GMT Actually Danman has been a bit incorrect here. Joe, if you connect channel A to one set of speaker posts and channel B to the other set, this is biamping, not biwiring. It would be biwiring if you used two sets of speaker cable from the same output of the amp. If you use both A and B amp outputs, you are effectively using two amp outputs and therefore this is biwiring. You will not harm amp or speakers any more than you would do if you single wired. (In other words if you overdrive the amp, things will still break.) As to sonic quality, this depends. If you use the same speaker cablebiwired as single wired, then there is a chance the sound will be better. But if channel B is worse quality than the channel A, then you could have less quality overall than if you ran with just channel A. Also, if you spent the money on a single run of better wire, you could reap more rewards that way since the better wire would not have the faults that you are doubling up by biwiring with the worse wire. If you DO choose to use both channels and biamp, then try the channels both ways. In other words, connect A to the treble units and B to the bass/mids. Then swap over the connections and see which way around you prefer the system. Regards, Frank.
Frank Abela Silver Member Username: Frank_abela Berkshire UK Post Number: 620 Registered: Sep-04	Posted on Monday, July 04, 2005 - 16:18 GMT Sorry at the end of the first paragraph I should have said biamping! ARGH! Frank.
KEGGER Gold Member Username: Kegger Warren, MICHIGAN Post Number: 2501 Registered: Dec-03	Posted on Tuesday, July 05, 2005 - 02:00 GMT Frank are you sure those are individual descrete amplifiers on both a and b channels? Most amps a and b come from the same output amplifier just giving you an extra connection! I've worked on many unit's to set dc offset and the bias voltage and not one has had 4 sets of adjustements, just 2 and you get the same reading on both a and b right channel plus a and b left channel have the same readings. If that is the case with this unit also then it is still biwiring just coming from 2 different connections on the same output amp. __________________________________ Dan Reid "kegger i have axioms m60's and and avr 125, now i was thinking about buying a more powerful amp, could i use the 125 as a slave amp for the highs (55watts in stereo) and drive the woofers with the more powerful amp?? I'm pretty sure this would work out but i thought most guys do it the other way around and drive the woofers with the power amp or is there any difference?" Yes that will work and you may want to play with which is doing which to find out which combo may work better for your setup.
Frank Abela Silver Member Username: Frank_abela Berkshire UK Post Number: 629 Registered: Sep-04	Posted on Tuesday, July 05, 2005 - 14:26 GMT Kegger AFAIK they're actually different outputs. If they weren't you'd be halving the load to the amp by adding the second set of speakers - bad idea. Regards, Frank.
KEGGER Gold Member Username: Kegger Warren, MICHIGAN Post Number: 2504 Registered: Dec-03	Posted on Tuesday, July 05, 2005 - 18:12 GMT Frank it's done all the time! If you read the back of most unit's that have 2 sets of speaker outputs it will say something like, when using 1 set of speakers 4 ohm is fine but when using 2 8 ohm or higher load so it's 2 sets of speakers in paralell. So again do you know for sure this unit has 4 seperate amps in it as most do not!
Danman Silver Member Username: Danman QUEBEC CANADA Post Number: 309 Registered: Apr-04	Posted on Wednesday, July 06, 2005 - 11:06 GMT Sorry Frank I disagree with you. Having A and B speaker outputs on the same amp and wiring like joseph said, is NOT bi-amping. There is only one amp output inside an integrated amp and using both posts weather it be for the high or lows, he will still have to use 2 sets of wires and this would only change the impedance of the amp. In order to bi-amp (like I do) he would have to have 2 seperate amps and one pre-amp output. I have mine set up in a vertical method (most reccommended) In other words, one amp runs the right speaker and the other runs the left. It is better to hook up speakers this way so not to run one amp for highs and one for lows so not to un balance the power output. However, both amps have to be the same.
Danman Silver Member Username: Danman QUEBEC CANADA Post Number: 310 Registered: Apr-04	Posted on Wednesday, July 06, 2005 - 11:08 GMT NAD 3240, has only one amp but can run in different inpedance levels hence A and B posts.
Danman Silver Member Username: Danman QUEBEC CANADA Post Number: 316 Registered: Apr-04	Posted on Wednesday, July 06, 2005 - 19:19 GMT Here is the explanation that came with my speakers: "Vertical stereo bi-amping" Our preferred method of bi-amping is vertical stereo bi-amping. This is when two identical stereo power amplifiers are used, one for the left speaker and one for the right speaker. If we consider just the left speaker and amplifier, one channel is used to drive the high frequencies and one is used to drive the bass frequencies. The same, of course, applies to the right speaker and amplifier. To analyse why this works so effectively, we need to appreciate that the load characteristics of the tweeter and woofer are very different. The woofer requires a large current and if driven with a single channel of power amplifier, a heavy bass transient can absorb all of the available current, causing the amplifier to clip and distort. By separating the current to the tweeter and woofer, we are apportioning the power with a more equitable split -- thereby allowing the amplifier much more 'headroom'."
Danman Silver Member Username: Danman QUEBEC CANADA Post Number: 341 Registered: Apr-04	Posted on Friday, July 08, 2005 - 01:24 GMT Here is a good explanation of bi-amping: http://www.symphonysound.com/articles/biamp.html
Goose Silver Member Username: Goose Post Number: 101 Registered: Feb-04	Posted on Monday, July 11, 2005 - 20:27 GMT I run a passive vertical bi-amp set-up and am very happy with it. I initially had a single NAD 902 (30W/channel) running a pair of Wharfedale Diamond 8.4, but was not happy with the results. So I picked up another 902 and ran them bridged (90W each) because I thought that I just needed more power. Just because I could, I also played with bi-amping. Bingo! Far and away the best, with much greater clarity and "air". I'd never go back. In fact, I like it so much that my plans to move to a surround receiver got shelved. I now have a NAD 906 (basically three 902s in one box) to bi-amp the rear speakers, still with a bi-amped 902 per front. I have no centre, but if I ever get one I still have two channels unused. Best of all, this was cheap! Of course, I then went and blew a bundle on a nice multi-channel pre-amp to drive them ...

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