Wow. Bi-Amping sounds pretty delicious!

[ReferenceLover]

I just tried Bi-Amping setup with my AVR-350. My speaker sounds so much BETTER! (I think I set it up correctly!). I can notice dramatic improvement in treble area. Treble now sounds really controlled. I had to admit, my Studio 60s sometimes went out of control in high freq. sound such as trumpet sound, but with bi-amping .. well that's history now. I guess my speakers needed extra juice and now they have got it! Also, background sound is pitch black. I hear less hiss and it isolates more of sound that I meant to hear.

But, what do I do with my surround back speakers (Studio 20s)? Should I build dedicated 2channel system??

[Dankeech]

Lol, I also found Bi-amping made a very big difference. Are you using channels 6+7 configured to bi-amp fronts or running a poweramp with the AVR350?

I reckon run a zone2 to the bedroom or somewhere else for the Studio 20's. Or perhaps try a musical fidelity amp, even an elektra to go with them as a 2nd system.

Dan.

[gregeas]

Yeah, I'm bi-amping my Studio 60s with my AVP700/P1000 (I also have the CC570 and Studios 20s as rears). IMO the advantage of bi-amping outweighs the benefits of seven-channel surround or a second zone.

At one point I changed the configuration of my two-channel system so that it was no longer bi-amping my old N804s. The sound quality deteriorated to the point that I thought my system (CD33/C31/P35) was malfunctioning. The difference was that big.

I think the people who deny the potential of passive bi-amping have never actually tried it.

[Tacitus]

I am with you Gregeas. I just bi-amped my N805 signatures and HTM1 centre with a combination of the Arcam P7 and the P1 monoblocks. And boy what a difference it made to the sound! Would recommend it to anyone. Can't wait to try the new HD audio formats on it.

[avlava]

I have avr350 and mission elegantes e80s * 4, e8c Cetner and the e8as1 ( i think ) Sub.

Im sure something is missing as the sound just seems to lack something like mid range. Voices seem to sound better using my tv speaker ( song kdl40v2000 ) than through the cetner which just seems odd to me.

Is there a way of bi-amping just the center speak with the avr350? Im wondering if that would help. There never seems to be much sound coming from the left and right unless a car drives by, or some moving object in an action sequence on a film so im not sure if bi-amping those is worth while. What you think?

[Dankeech]

Hi avlava,
You should be able to use the Centre Pre-out on the rear of the AVR350 and run that to a seperate poweramp and use that to bi-amp the Centre if your centre has 2 sets of terminals.
Don't forget to remove the biwire links from your speakers before you do this and consult manual if unsure.

Dan.

[mpmct]

You all have me licking my chops, waiting for two P1 demo units
to add to my current 36/31/P1s/MA GS10s set up, to audition.
Another week or so, and I get to hear for myself.

Any predictions what might be revealed, so to speak?

[gregeas]

I can't justify it at the moment, but I was thinking about how cool it would be to have a pair of P1s bi-amping each speaker... Good luck with that experiment. Let us know how it goes. My prediction: it should be amazing.

[Phil Adams]

Hello all and a happy new year to all of you (a bit late)

mpmct - I had an A85 & P85 bi amping a pair of B&W CDM 1NT's and it sounded awsome. Adding the power amp seemed to make the speakers sound a lot bigger

I now have an A32 & P35 driving a pair of B&W N804's and it sounds even better. So what will be revealed? More and better defined deeper bass, smoother highs and a clearer mid range. The sound stage will be wider and deeper also. Oh and there will be a hulking big fat dent in your bank balance and a lot of explianing to do to the other half

[avlava]

Originally Posted by Dankeech

Hi avlava,
You should be able to use the Centre Pre-out on the rear of the AVR350 and run that to a seperate poweramp and use that to bi-amp the Centre if your centre has 2 sets of terminals.
Don't forget to remove the biwire links from your speakers before you do this and consult manual if unsure.

Dan.

Right so no way of just bi-amping the center with the 350? I know it will do the fronts left and right if i sacrifice channels 6 and 7. Looks like im looking at a sep power amp then. Any recommendations?

D

[Barend]

Agree on big improvement passive biamping.
I experimented with biamping my center too, id didn't bring any improvement though, obviously there is little bass content going there...
But you can try if you have an extra amp lurking on your attic...
Even better is active biamping by disabling the crossover filters in the speaker unit and inserting an active crossover before the final amp section.
But it's risky- easy to blow up an unprotected tweeter, and often useless, because for instance my KEF Reference 203 sounded boomy and fuzzy and hollow after the surgery, as KEF confirmed the speakers have been tuned WITH the xovers in the factory.
It's probably only worthwile with homebrew speakers or dedicated non-x/over units.

[RonCH]

I must say, I was very surprised by the difference Bi-Amping made to my system. I went from a A32 powering B&W 703s to a A32 + P35, and the difference is huge.

[Dankeech]

Originally Posted by avlava

Right so no way of just bi-amping the center with the 350? I know it will do the fronts left and right if i sacrifice channels 6 and 7. Looks like im looking at a sep power amp then. Any recommendations?

D

Almost certain there's no way to bi-amp the centre on the 350 without a seperate power amp. I've not used any arcam power amps so cannot comment.

Arcam's current offerings in the Diva series appear to be the P80 (£400) and P90 (£550). Both seem to offer 4 channels (2 channels bi-amp). There might be good discontinued models that may be more suitable perhaps for single channel power-amps etc.

Dan.

[Canti1982]

The FMJ P35 looked like a good bet, You can add an additional set of connections so it can run 3 seperate speakers.

A bit more expensive though at £830. I Have not Bi-amped my fronts yet but if the improvement is really that vast then doing all 5 would be great. Only problem is affording the Bi-wire cables for the rears. Not sure the rears are worth bothering with, anyone tried it?

[jorgandjean]

Originally Posted by avlava

Right so no way of just bi-amping the center with the 350? I know it will do the fronts left and right if i sacrifice channels 6 and 7. Looks like im looking at a sep power amp then. Any recommendations?

D

Why don't you bi-wire the front. bi-amping the mains makes sense as they require more usually more power. Bi-wiring already splits the frequencies and will make a difference.