Do any of Arcam's receivers allow bi-amping L/C/R?

[adeeb]

A friend wants a recommendation from me for receiver and speakers. However, he does not want rear or surround speakers, so he is purely looking for a 3.1 or maybe just a L/C/R setup.

He will use it 50% for TV/Blu-ray and 50% for music FWIW.

I was wondering if any of the available 7.1 receivers from Arcam (or other brands) allow you to use the 4 unused channels to bi-amp the L/C/R.

I am currently using the AVR600 in my 5.1 setup and have bi-amped the L/R using the 2 remaining channels, but the Center is not bi-amped. Having said that, I think the AVR600 is overkill for my friend's purposes.

Still, if any of you know of a receiver that will allow bi-amping the L/C/R using the extra channels please let me know.

Thanks!

 

[Rock Danger]

It won't be an Arcam. Why would he not want rear speakers? 3.1 I think personally is gonna sound worse than 2.1 which he'd be better off with - or as we say round here 'stereo with a sub'

 

[adeeb]

It won't be an Arcam. Why would he not want rear speakers? 3.1 I think personally is gonna sound worse than 2.1 which he'd be better off with - or as we say round here 'stereo with a sub'

He doesn't want the rear speakers due to the layout of the room (awkward to put rears or surrounds) and the aesthetics.

I was also considering a 2.1 setup, but why do you think that it would sound better than 3.1 with movies? I thought the center would help ensuring that dialogue sounds like its coming from the TV as it could be placed closer to it than the L/R. I guess I can test it out by disabling the respective speakers on my own setup.

Thanks.

 

[Mark.Yudkin]

He doesn't want the rear speakers due to the layout of the room (awkward to put rears or surrounds) and the aesthetics.

I was also considering a 2.1 setup, but why do you think that it would sound better than 3.1 with movies? I thought the center would help ensuring that dialogue sounds like its coming from the TV as it could be placed closer to it than the L/R. I guess I can test it out by disabling the respective speakers on my own setup.

3.1 is only of advantage if the speakers or their positioning is such that stereo imaging (e.g. music: 50% of the usage) is really poor and you need to try and work around this massive system inadequacies by adding speakers in the hopes of partially rescuing the situation for film dialogues. The other reason for a separate centre is that the stereo speakers are just lousy that dialogue can't be understood, such as with some budget sat/sub setups. I find it hard to believe that anybody with thse sorts of issue would be asking about biamping - the priority would surely be to fix the real issues.

 

[garysan]

I agree with both posters above, a 2.1 is definitely the way to go - unless you're using identical L, C, R speakers, the chances are the centre will not be as good as the main L & R anyway. Sounds like he's trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist.

I can't remember exactly why I had to do it now as it was a few years back but I did run stereo L & R instead of my usual 5.1 for a little while (I think it might have been surround cabling IIRC) and it sounded really good, the centre speaker was still present but not wired in but you'd swear the dialogue was emanating from it...

Get the stereo positioning correct and you'll be golden!

 

[adeeb]

Thanks all.