Bridging/Biamping

[Bob0398]

I am going to biamp a pair of Nad 2200's into PSB Stratus Silvers. Can anyone tell me whether or not bridging the amps first is advised and what the difference in effects will be and why?

 

[OttoMatic]

I am going to biamp a pair of Nad 2200's into PSB Stratus Silvers. Can anyone tell me whether or not bridging the amps first is advised and what the difference in effects will be and why?

Hi Bob,

A quick Google for NAD 2200 lead me to believe that these are two-channel amplifiers. If you want to biamp one set of speakers, you will need a total of four amplifier channels, and that's what you have: 2 two-channel amplifiers for a total of four channels. You will not be able to bridge them, else you will only have two channels.

Now, some here are going to tell you that biamping is a waste of time and money. Some will tell you that what you are doing is not bi-amping at all (it is, it's just passive bi-amping as opposed to active bi-amping). Some will tell you that there are no noticable differences in sound quality. Some people may even confuse bi-amping with bi-wiring. Shortly after that the whole thread will degerate into a bi-amping is worthless vs. bi-amping works "debate."

Are those assertions true? I'd say it depends on the listener. It will definitely supply more power and headroom to the speakers (some will say that the "high" section (i.e., tweeters and/or mids) don't take that much power anyway. I'll also say that it's electrically different than simple stereo wiring.

In the end, I think it's good for we end users to experiment with different configurations. It's also fun, and you might learn something else out of it.

Either way, good luck.

 

[zildjian]

There are easily half a dozen threads about biamping that are pages and pages long and hash over more aspects of this than you probably ever will want to consider. so check those out if you want more info about the pro's con's of the science behind it; the short plan for it should be though, just try it if you already have the equipment and see if you like the sound. If so, keep it. If there's no difference, don't worry either way about it. Simple.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I am going to biamp a pair of Nad 2200's into PSB Stratus Silvers. Can anyone tell me whether or not bridging the amps first is advised and what the difference in effects will be and why?

Yeah, if you bridged two Nad 2200 amps, you will only have a total of 2 channels. For Bi-amping 2 PSB Stratus Silver speakers, you need a total of 4 channels of amplifiers. So don't bridge them.

To me, Bi-amping is "cool". Unless you are bi-amping a subwoofer driver & tweeter+midrange drivers, you probably won't hear much differences. The PSB Stratus has one tweeter & two midrange/upper bass drivers? So one amp for the tweeter and one amp for the midrange/upper bass drivers? It is still cool. Do it.

 

[AVRat]

From a previous thread, I suggested bridging the NADs instead of using them to bi-amp the PSBs. He's looking for other opinions and what the resulting SQ might be using each method.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

From a previous thread, I suggested bridging the NADs instead of using them to bi-amp the PSBs. He's looking for other opinions and what the resulting SQ might be using each method.

Those NADs are 100-watts Continuous (400-watts Peak) @ 8 ohms, 150-watts Continuous (600-watts Peak) @ 4 ohms? Those PSBs are 2-way (1 Tweeter + 2 midrange/upper bass drivers) 4 ohms speakers. Theoretically, wouldn't bi-amping be best? Or not.

One of the best speakers are Quad-amp: BeoLab 5 has a built-in amp for each driver: 250-watts for Tweeter, 250-watts for Midrange, 1,000-watts for upper bass, 1,000-watts for Subwoofer. Man, I would love to have this $16,000 pair of speakers.

 

[OttoMatic]

From a previous thread, I suggested bridging the NADs instead of using them to bi-amp the PSBs.

OK, that helps for some background. Thanks, Rat.

The recommendation to bridge the amps and run each speaker from one amp is a good one as well, and one that makes sense.

I won't pretend to be able to describe "midrange bloom" or "six-pack abs bass" or whatever if you wire one way or the other. In the end, I think that the differences between bi-amping and bridging (without bi-amping) will be very subtle. Assuming you don't mind absorbing the cost of the extra cables, try both and let us know what you think.

 

[Bob0398]

I've done the deed. I vertically biamped two identical amps into a pair of bi-wireable speakers. The sound has improved significantly - increased base clarity and, overall, a more realistic sound. I'm very pleased with the outcome even though "hiding" all the extra wires was a bunch of work. I also learned an important lesson - when using poultry shears to cut off the ends of plastic cable ties take out your finger first.

 

[mtrycrafts]

... I also learned an important lesson - when using poultry shears to cut off the ends of plastic cable ties take out your finger first.

Hey, that is a great suggestion. Too bad you didn't come up with this when I really needed it But, I will try to remember this