I have four Alecto monoblocks driving my speakers, two per speaker. Adding the second pair of amps was a significant upgrade in terms of bass control and depth. It also made an (admittedly lesser) improvement to the treble, removing a layer of grain.
When using stereo amps, it is normal to use one amp for the two bass sections of the speakers, and one for the two treble sections (horizontal). HOWEVER, although many people don't try this, it is actually better to use one stereo amp for the left speaker, and the other one for the right speaker. This way the power supply is only dealing with a single speaker's worth of bass delivery, and any crosstalk is kept within the same speaker. Of course, if you decide to go the bi-amping route, then it is trivial to try out both arrangements. On the question of whether bi-amping is an improvement, per se. That is a somewhat different issue. I found that when I had the opportunity to use a single pair of Bryston 600W monoblocks (the 7B's if I remember correctly), then I found them to be a considerable improvement over the two pairs of Alectos. In other words, bi-amping is not a universal panacea. It can be a cost effective way of upgrading an existing system, if you simply double up on you existing power amp(s). I would dearly love to compare lower powered bi-amped Brystons with a single pair of the 7Bs. Active speakers, where each individual frequency range in a speaker is driven with a different amp, and where the crossover frequencies are controlled electronically prior to the power amps are a very different kettle of fish. Just to be clear, although many people view active speakers as containing the crossover electronics, and amps within the enclosure, widespread use of this topology is quite recent. The term active speakers also applies to the topology that has the crossover and all the amps in your equipment rack, with multiple speaker cables running to each speaker. This is not what is referred to in common audio parlance as bi-amping (sorry Pat). -- bigfool1956 David Ayers Music is what counts, hifi just helps us enjoy it more ------------------------------------------------------------------------ bigfool1956's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=13782 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=46354 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
