Bi-Amp and what are the benefits???

longyp

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I have purchased an Denon 1906 AV and Acoustic Energy speakers.

The speakers have 4 connection points (2 red, 2 black) and the amp manual talks about supporting Bi-Amp.

Can someone explain (basic terms please :thumbsup: ) what Bi-Amp and 4 wires into a speaker gives you? - (btw - I have a 5 speaker config)

Many thanks
 
hi, I've just bought a power amp myself (nac c270) and this itself give my stereo performance a lot more grunt, but I haven't got round to bi-amping yet...

in simple terms - you would normally use the power amp to drive the bass on your speakers (normally the bottom set of binding posts on your speakers) and your normal amp to drive the treble (and this would normally be the top binding posts on your speakers).
the benefits are that it'll give you better sound and seperation...

however, if you've only got one amp then you could bi-wire - which is running 2 sets on cables from the 2 binding posts on the amp to the speakers...but in all honesty - there isn't much (if any) difference between this and using a jumper cable - a jumper cable is a piece of speaker cable which essencely replaces the metal strip that is already between the speaker binding posts...and you can save a bit of cash to boot!

hope that makes sense
 
In the 1906 is has discrete amps, you actually have 7 amps in one box, you are reassigning 2 of the 7 to join the front left and right. Which gives the benafits as Mr Cat says. Its worth doing if you are only running 5.1 as this improves the amps stereo ability.

Do not get confused between one box and one amp, many single box units like A/V amps contain many amplifiers within.
 
longyp said:
I have purchased an Denon 1906 AV and Acoustic Energy speakers.

The speakers have 4 connection points (2 red, 2 black) and the amp manual talks about supporting Bi-Amp.

Can someone explain (basic terms please :thumbsup: ) what Bi-Amp and 4 wires into a speaker gives you? - (btw - I have a 5 speaker config)

Many thanks

Bi-amping(in other words using one amplifier channel for the bass,and one for the treble in each speaker)has a number of possible benefits,of which the most obvious are that the headroom before clipping or overloading the amp is increased,by using 2 amplifiers to do the job that one was doing previously.
Also,by separating the LF and HF feeds,both should in practice not be prone to intereference(intermodulation) from the other.

In essence,if you have 2 spare amp channels available,then there is no harm in using them for this purpose,and ideally you should do this for the front L and R speakers,as these will be taking the brunt of the work.
 
Benefits can offer.
3db more output (if Denon's biamping does indeed offer twice the single output)
Better control of transients
Improved bass "response". This actually can be misinterpreted as less bass on some set-up's. Generally one might expect a perceived improvement in timing for instance which would be attributable to driver control.
Some speak of minor differences in the sense of space which would presumably again be related to the available headroom.
These differences would almost certainly be more discernible when listening to full-range 2 channel audio. If you are biased toward a multichannel set-up with all speakers set to small and a sub, whilst listening to the usual bash and crash Hollywood fare it may be considerably harder to actually "hear" any great relevations.
 
Bi amping is well worth it and for me the biggest benefits are with small amps.
 
Bi amping my B&W 805S's have had a huge improvement in the quality of sound and IMO is well worth it... :)
 
Bi-wiring my old B&W DM640i gave serious improvement in the quality of my sound.
Tried Bi Amping with two Luxman amp's (L510 + L525) for experiment. Highs sounded much much better. Lows sounded much much better. But the combination did not produce a balanced soundfield. I Presume Bi amping with two exact the same amp's would have worked like a charm.
 
im totally new to all biwiring (this thread is the first time i have heard of it), but if i was to use a pair of technics speakers with 2 connectors on an amp with only one pair of speakers output, would i notice any difference if i used a bit of spare speaker cable to wire the two connections on the speaker together?
 
You would notice absolutley nothing unless the wire you are currently using is too long and thin, in which case doubling the conducting area will help. But if that's the case, buying adequate cable is probably cheaper. 1.5mm diameter is adequate.

If you have biampable speakers, there will be a connecting bridge. This should be left in place or replaced by a short piece of speaker cable. Otherwise you'll be missing the treble or bass as applicable.

You should not confuse biwiring with biamping.
 
You would notice absolutley nothing unless the wire you are currently using is too long and thin, in which case doubling the conducting area will help. But if that's the case, buying adequate cable is probably cheaper. 1.5mm diameter is adequate.

If you have biampable speakers, there will be a connecting bridge. This should be left in place or replaced by a short piece of speaker cable. Otherwise you'll be missing the treble or bass as applicable.

You should not confuse biwiring with biamping.

hi thanks for the reply, there wasnt a connecting bridge but i have made one with a little piece of speaker wire.

its only an old sony home cinema amp, not even a proper one as it gets its power from the sub, but with the speakers linked up with the woofer and a decent kenwood cd player the sound betters my denon stereo!
 
Any one have any ideas what cable to run for biamping?
I am using the DH800 which (Sony) support bi amping.
Biamping id definitely better.

The problem is I originally bought CA Symphony 200 OFC cables, and then I bough qed silver plated cables and CA ultra micro silver plated cables. THe silver plated cables definitely feel more trebley (brighter) when used in single amp configuration.

Since I thought no point in wasting cable I tried biamping with different cables using CA ultra micro silver plated for HF and copper 1.5mm for LF.
I also tried (HF 1mm OFC copper and LF 1mm OFC copper wire). The results are puzzling.
It seems for some music the dual type of cable is better (sounds better) and for others using the same type of cable it is better.


Anyone else have some experiments with this?
Before someone disses me for using two types of wire consider this:
Atlas makes a special biamp cable that is very expensive and uses stranded thick copper wire for LF and solid copper for HF .

So professionally it is possible to find a combination were the two cables are different and produce better sound.

However I am doing it with cheap speaker wire.
 
FYI Cambridge audio ultra micro 200 is very small number of strands and costs 3 GBP per meter AT RS, while the OFC copper (CA brand costs 1.50 per meter but you can get even cheaper ulternatives which sound almost the same).

The ultra micro is definitely brighter and less bassy than standard thicker copper cable (from CA and also from generic makers).
 
Hi guys - I hope this isn't a stupid question!

Several years ago I went to buy an AV amp and liked the sound of the Arcam AVR200. The dealer recommended bi-amping the unit, so I also purchased an Arcam P75. The speakers are Kef Q3

For the last 5 years, the gear has been stuck in the loft, having purchased a Yamaha AX-V1600 and B&W MT-25 for watching DVD's

I've now resurrected the Arcams and Kefs for listening to CD's. With the kit setup the sound seemed pretty good to me.

In playing around I turned off the power amp (connected to the LF) just to see what the sound was like.

There is hardly any sound coming out of the speakers - it sounds like listening to an iPod bud 20 feet away. The AVR200 is fine when no cable connected to the pre out

Surely I should get something slightly more realistic to the music I'm playing - unless of course I've not connected it all up properly

Any thoughts?
 

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