Passive Biamping

[attyonline]

I have a set of Aerius i speakers and am considering biamping them with a five channel amp. I have checked the archives here but found little useful info. Has anyone gone this route with their MLs and what was your impression as opposed to using two channels of power?

 

[roberto]

do it!!!

I have a set of Aerius i speakers and am considering biamping them with a five channel amp. I have checked the archives here but found little useful info. Has anyone gone this route with their MLs and what was your impression as opposed to using two channels of power?

Hola...you can feed, as an example, the front L & R amplifiers/channels for the panels and L & R back/amplifiers for the woofers. You can leave the 5th channel amp without connection and use a short RCA for its input. You have to use a "Y" RCA (one male and two females) connectors if your pre-amp does not have two stereo outputs. The bennefit of this connection is more dynamics, better resolution, more inner detail, and more bass control. Also the image will be wider and more back to front space. It is not only more power, because you can use a bigger wattage amplifier and you will not listen this, and I don´t know if many of you have done it. There is a Theorem (Koppler as I recall) of signal rejection from any cross-over, perhaps this is due to that. Try it, you might like it...trust your ears!!!

Happy listening, regards from Costa Rica,
Roberto.

 

[sleepysurf]

That's precisely what I am doing using a Sunfire Cinema Grand 200 ~five. I have bridged the front and rear channels (per this article... http://www.vxm.com/21R.116.html) and am thrilled with the sound. I can now drive the panels and woofers individually. With the Sunfire, you can also experiment with the current vs. voltage outputs, as mentioned in the article. I use the spare 5th channel to drive my center speaker (currently a B&W, but awaiting the Stage!).

 

[attyonline]

I appreciate the replies. On other forums the consensus appears to be that biamping is not effective, but none of the posters to my knowledge used ML speakers. I do not have a five channel amp now so to try passive biamping, I will have to buy one, and I rather not do so unless there is a very good chance that it will be sonically worth while.

 

[DTB300]

I appreciate the replies. On other forums the consensus appears to be that biamping is not effective,

I bi-amped my Sequel II's and they were better sounding that way. Not a MAJOR change in sound, but it was better....and every little bit helps.

I have a friend that Tri-Amped his Legacy speakers and the sound is phenominal compared to prior. He selected the type of amps for the low end, mids and highs to tailor the sound to the way he liked it - re: he listens to live music 3-4 day per week.....

But the only way to find out for yourself is to hook it up and listen...

Dan

 

[Spike]

Info on bi-amping

I'm surprised to see that you are not able to find much information regarding bi-amping of ML speakers. I've posted quite a few times on this exact subject here already.

From my previous post on this bi-amping subject here in the ML forums....

In my journey with music being the primary purpose, I ended up with bi-amp configuration: tubes for the panels and solid-state for the bass. My room is not quite as large as yours (16'x30') with 9' ceiling, also, 8-12' being the primary listening area. For my room, I'm quite happy with this combination (system #27). Something to consider. I've put up several posts on this subject here on this ML forum so just do a search and...enjoy the reading. Hope you're not too exhausted yet

Here are several threads where I touched on the subject of bi-amping...

http://www.martinloganowners.com/~tdacquis/forum/showthread.php?t=523
http://www.martinloganowners.com/~tdacquis/forum/showthread.php?t=460
http://www.martinloganowners.com/~tdacquis/forum/showthread.php?t=401

 

[DavidG]

or bigger single amp?

This is a very interesting area. There are many people out there who swear that bi (or even tri) amping is the way to go - although you can't really tri-amp most MLs.

Then there are some other very notable speaker manufacturers (like Dynaudio and others) who don't give you the option - you get one pair of terminals with no option to upgrade. Their philosophy is simple - if you want more power or better sound, use a better amplifier.

I'm in agreement with the Dynaudio approach. I think that this applies especially to MLs where there is a huge impedance difference between the panel and the cone - don't forget that the x-over is designed to work with these two components. No doubt, you can get good results by bi-amping the MLs - but I suspect that you'll get unbelievably bad results if you get the amp combination wrong!!

The only real way to tell is to try it and see. Compare large single amps with smaller bi-amp configurations, and see how it sounds .

Cheers,

David

 

[Jean-Marie]

The only real way to tell is to try it and see. Compare large single amps with smaller bi-amp configurations, and see how it sounds .

I agree with this.
I first bi-amped my Ascent with a couple of LINN LK140 during a few years, and changed them with a Chord SPM 600. The step up was evident. I think it's better to go to a higher quality amp that bi-amping. Now if you can afford the bi-amping with high quality amp's , this would be the piece of the cake of course.