pfarrell;450153 Wrote: > Phil Leigh wrote: > > I disagree. A line-level crossover gives you active, not passive > > "bi-amping". Splitting the passive crossover by removing the bi-wire > > links, where fitted, and using either horizontal (one bass amp, one > > treble amp) or vertical (one amp per speaker) bi-amping gives you > twice > > the power reserve/headroom and can certainly give a better sound. > > You mean can possibly give you better sound. Its true that the bass > amp > has to work and the mid-treble amp doesn't need much power. But to get > better sound, you need to make sure that the two amps are identical in > areas such as speed, pace, etc. > > Just using two amps does double the power, but that does not improve > the > loudness (power before distortion) in any meaningful way. It takes ten > times the power to play twice as loud. > > -- > Pat Farrell > http://www.pfarrell.com/
Well I was absolutely assuming two identical power amps...or certainly two amps with identical gain and similar sonic characteristics - usually this means they have to come from the same manufacturer! And yes I was talking about headroom, not volume. Interestingly, Linn used to prefer a complex setup with left bass and right treble driven by one amp and right bass+left treble by the other - this avoided a heavy central bass transient saturating the bass amp and/or compromising imaging(allegedly). Anyway, I do think bi-amping is nearly always a valid and tangible improvement, but using a proper active setup with no vestigial passive crossover sounds much much better. -- Phil Leigh You want to see the signal path BEFORE it gets onto a CD/vinyl...it ain't what you'd call minimal... SB3 (wired) - TACT 2.2X (Linear PSU) + Good Vibrations S/W - MF Triplethreat(Audiocom full mods) - Linn 5103 - Aktiv 5.1 system (6x LK140's, ESPEK/TRIKAN/KATAN/SEIZMIK 10.5), Townsend Supertweeters, Blue Jeans Digital,Kimber Speaker & Chord Interconnect cables Outdoors: Boom ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Phil Leigh's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=85 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=66796 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
