Bi-Amp via A and B channels?

J

Justin D

Enthusiast
I was just wondering if it is possible to bi-amp speakers by using the A channel on my receiver (Denon 2805) for the mids/highs and using the B channel for bass (or vice versa). This would only be for stereo listening.

Thanks.
 
gene

gene

Audioholics Master Chief
Administrator
No Justin that is called biwiring. There is little to no benefit of doing so and some receivers have the A,B speaker outputs wired in series so in that instance you will surely lose performance. You can check this by having your speakers connected to A, then press B and see if the sound disappears.
 
Mudcat

Mudcat

Senior Audioholic
I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong but here goes.

Your stereo receiver pumps out 100 watts/channel, 200 watts total into Left and Right.

Case 1
You have your speakers connected to the A holes (ha ha) with the jumper in place on the speakers. In this case the woofers will use what they require and the midrange and tweeters get the rest. (100 x 2 = 200 watts total)

Case 2
You remove the jumper on speakers. You connect the midrange/tweeters to the A hole, and you connect the woofers to the B hole. Now your midrange/tweeters will get 50 watts/channel, and you woofer will get 50 watts/channel. (50 x 4 = 200 watts total). I think if you do this you will not be happy with under powered woofers. Could the amp start clipping in this scenerio - I do not know. Someone might though. Maybe a sophisticated receiver will divide the power judiciously, I do not know.

Did I help/hinder/confuse/annoy you?
 
J

Justin D

Enthusiast
Hehe, I'm more confused now than when I asked the question. I thought the two channels were completely separate from each other?? :confused:
 
JohnA

JohnA

Audioholic Chief
Um...

Ok I think I understand what you are saying...after looking at the Denon site What you could do (which would be better) would be take 2 of the 7.1 chs. and you can asign them to the Zone 2 which you could use for the sub. But about your sub...is it a powered sub if so just take the sub pre-outand use that. But is you are trying to use a pair of ch for just running a woofer in a 3-way speaker then you are getting into more of problems than you want. If you are using bi-amp speakers and want to power each one seperatly than you "could" in theroy(you may just have to try this) is wire the high/mid speakers to the front L/R and the woofers to the rear L/R and have the reciver set to 5ch stero.
 
J

Justin D

Enthusiast
I already have my sub connected to the sub pre-out.
Being lazy, I'm was just trying to figure out if there was a way to bi-amp my PSB Image 5T's without going through the process described here: http://www.audioholics.com/productreviews/avhardware/Denon-AVR3805_review04.php

I just got these speakers yesterday and I just wanted to experiment a little. I don't want to go through the whole receiver setup (just got that in a few weeks ago) because I'm moving in a week.

Hope this clears everything up. So, what you guys are saying is that there are no shortcuts and I should do it as the link above describes, right?

Thanks again.

Justin
 
JohnA

JohnA

Audioholic Chief
Correct

As the article said, "Be sure to remove the jumpers on the back of the main speakers and then connect a set of wires from the "Front" channels of the receiver to the highs section of each of your front speakers and a set of wires from the "Multi Zone 2" channels of the receiver to the lows of your front speakers. "

That is what you need to do, and you should be golden :D
 

Latest posts

newsletter

  • RBHsound.com
  • BlueJeansCable.com
  • SVS Sound Subwoofers
  • Experience the Martin Logan Montis
Top