Bi-Amping w/ AVR

[mdale]

Hi. I apologize if this question had been posted previously.

Can I "bi-amp" my speakers by driving the upper register of the speaker with the AVR and the lower register with a separate amp? Would this configuration damage the AVR? Thank you for your consideration.

[gus4emo]

AVR can be used as is or as preamp, not both, as far as I know.

[mdale]

Thank you, Gus! Yes, this gets to my question: Can the AVR be used as the primary amp to drive the upper register of the speaker while the line-outs are used to send a signal to an auxiliary amp for the lower register? Is this a no no?

[wilburthegoose]

I don't think so. You'd need your AVR to be able to cross over the signal between itself and an amp.

Let's take a step back - what are you trying to accomplish? What made you think bi-amping would be a good solution for you?

[The History Kid]

True bi-amping requires an active outboard crossover - something most receivers are not designed to do. What you're specifying is glorified bi-wiring which has little to no benefits other than adding more wire to a setup that should be easy to maintain.

[mdale]

My system is working fine; I'm not trying to solve a particular problem. I'm just wondering whether "bi-amping" in this way might yield any sonic improvement to my system. The AVR amp would drive the midrange/tweeter, and the AVR line-level outputs would connect to a separate amp to drive the dual woofers in the Polk RTi-A7. But I don't want to risk trying it if the experiment might harm the AVR. And maybe this configuration would not produce any noticeable improvement, anyway.

[The History Kid]

In towers of midfi grade, I do not believe such a thing would benefit you. There's still not going to be any separating of the high and low frequencies, and therefore you would still be Bi-wiring. Bi-amping would consist of splitting the high frequencies from the low and sending both to each respective driver. In tri-amping, you'd also split the mid frequencies.

What you are going for will provide you with little or no improvement in sound. However, the running your towers off of an outboard amp could improve SQ in of itself. I have noticed an improvement by doing this in my setup simply because more power is available to the towers.

[mdale]

Ibiza, thank you for your advice. Much appreciated.

[The History Kid]

Not a problem. Bi-wiring/amping is a tricky subject in the real world. The problem is that a lot of companies are putting dual-post terminals on speakers that either aren't actually designed to use them, or would not benefit from them at all. It's starting to become one of those "if I had a nickel" scenario's. haha

[charlieeco]

I´m running KEF´s Q100 Bi-amped with Onkyo tr-737, I can´t  tell any difference .  Unless you run a PRO Bi-amping set up with external Xovers and all the requiered paraphernalia and if your speakers are specially design for that purpose, then we are talking.

[leonski]

Jan 16, 2017 20:35:24 GMT -5 charlieeco said:

I´m running KEF´s Q100 Bi-amped with Onkyo tr-737, I can´t  tell any difference .  Unless you run a PRO Bi-amping set up with external Xovers and all the requiered paraphernalia and if your speakers are specially design for that purpose, then we are talking.

Once you go to a line-level crossover, which goes between PRE and MAIN amp, than you need to connect the amps directly to the speaker drivers.   
This means you need some surgery on the speaker to disconnect the existing crossover and make provision for the new wiring.

Some 3-way speakers can be biamped IF you leave the mid-tweeter crossover in-place and conned the amp as if it were a 2-way speaker.