BI-AMPING, SPLITTERS AND SUBWOOFERS

[WJGJ]

HELLO FOLKS,

WRITTEN IN ALL CAPS BECAUSE OF EYE DISEASE.

I HAVE A BI-AMPED SYSTEM AS FOLLOWS:

A PREAMP WITH 2 PAIRS OF OUTPUTS

2 STEREO AMPLIFIERS POWERING 2 BI-AMPED SPEAKERS

2 Y-SPLITTERS ON EACH AMPLIFIER (4 IN TOTAL) SPLITTING THE PREAMP OUTPUT FOR LEFT AND RIGHT CHANNELS AT THE AMPLIFIERS

2 POWERED SUBWOOFERS WITH LOW LEVEL LEFT AND RIGHT INPUTS

FROM THESE Y-SPLITTERS AT THE AMPLIFIERS, I RUN A PAIR OF INTERCONNECTS LEFT AND RIGHT CHANNELS TO EACH SUBWOOFER LEFT AND RIGHT CHANNEL INPUTS

MY INTENTION IS TO REDUCE IMPEDANCE ACCRUED FROM USING A PAIR OF INTERCONNECTS (LEFT AND RIGHT) FOR EACH SUBWOOFER AND FOR EACH CHANNEL TO REDUCE THE LOAD ON THE PREAMP

MY QUESTION IS ARE LOW BASS FREQUENCIES MONO AND COMMON TO BOTH STEREO AMPLIFIER CHANNELS?

IN OTHER WORDS ARE THE LOW BASS FREQUENCIES THE SAME IN BOTH STEREO CHANNELS?

IF SO I WOULD TO REMOVE ONE OF THE Y-SPLITTERS AND ONE OF THE INTERCONNECTS FROM EITHER THE LEFT OR RIGHT CHANNEL FROM EACH OF THE 2 AMPLIFIERS TO THE SUBWOOFER

IF SO WHICH CHANNEL WOULD BE BEST TO REMOVE?

THANKS FOR ANY INPUT YOU MAY HAVE

 

[lovinthehd]

What make/model of gear involved?

 

[WJGJ]

What make/model of gear involved?

KLIPSCH SPL-120 SUB R/H
POLK HTS-12 SUB L!H
2 JUNGSON JA-99 C AMPS
COPPER PROBABLY BRASS SPLITTERS
2.2 AND 5.2 ANTICABLE INTERCONNECTS
MINGDA 300-PRE TUBE PREAMP

 

[Eppie]

For stereo music, no bass is not mono. For movie sound tracks when using an AVR, the LFE channel is mono but for music it is up to the mixing engineering. Bass is non-directional to the ear below certain frequencies, but for music you want to connect both L+R channels to the subwoofers. The other issue is that you are considering disconnecting just one channel (either left or right) with the subwoofers. That will create in inbalance between the two channels. You want the same impedance on both left and right channels.

 

[lovinthehd]

Some music is mixed to mono in lower bass. It won't matter since you don't have a mono sub output. Are the splitters actually causing any specific issues? I'd continue to let the sub sum to mono in any case....

 

[WJGJ]

THANKS FOR

For stereo music, no bass is not mono. For movie sound tracks when using an AVR, the LFE channel is mono but for music it is up to the mixing engineering. Bass is non-directional to the ear below certain frequencies, but for music you want to connect both L+R channels to the subwoofers. The other issue is that you are considering disconnecting just one channel (either left or right) with the subwoofers. That will create in inbalance between the two channels. You want the same impedance on both left and right channels.

THANKS FOR YOUR THOUGHTFUL ADVICE EPPLE