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bbakken82

Audioholic Intern
Does Bi-wiring really make a big difference? How about bi-amping? Will I be able to hear a difference?
 
jaxvon

jaxvon

Audioholic Ninja
The only effect of bi-wiring is reducing the resistance going to your speakers. If you're already using a proper guage of speaker cable (14 or better) that isn't oxidized, then you won't hear a difference. Bi-amping, however, might produce a discernable difference. Because you're using more amps, your speakers can play louder. Besides, bi-amping means that you're pushing each amp less, so it's less likely to clip. Speakers can handle a LOT of power, but only if it's clean. When an amplifier clips, it makes your speakers sound cruddy and can even damage them.

That said, if I remember correctly, you need to double the amount of power you have on tap to get a noticeable difference (this is with bi-amping). For a double in volume, you need to have 10 times the power.

Conclusion: Bi Wiring is really a waste of money. If you're just using a single amp, just get a good-quality, low resistance cable with reasonable capacitance and inductance and you should be good to go. I'd suggest a good 12ga or 10ga cable.
 
Irvrobinson

Irvrobinson

Audioholic Spartan
Bi-amping is a mixed bag

Assuming we're discussing passive bi-amping here (meaning the speakers use passive crossovers, and each speaker input is fed a full-frequency signal), you may or may not hear a difference, depending on the design of your speakers.

In passive bi-amping you're feeding identical signals into two separate sections of the speaker, usually the woofer(s) section and the midrange-tweeter section. If you're running small, dual driver satellites (e.g. a 7" woofer and a tweeter) I can't believe bi-amping will make any difference at all, unless you have a very weak amplifier; perhaps a single-ended tube thing would qualify. You see, the efficiency of one section of the speaker is not necessarily 3db greater than the two combined. So adding another 3db of power (like you get from the second amp) may not buy you any additional headroom at all! Where does the power go? It heats the crossover network. The 40Hz power supplied to the tweeter in a passively bi-amped configuration is the same as that supplied to the woofer. And since the voltage is the same as you would use with single-amp configurations the net effect might be exactly the same with or without passive bi-amping. Well, you'll use double the electricity with bi-amping. :)

So why consider passive bi-amping at all? Well... some speakers are nasty loads on amplifiers, and the loads of the woofer and midrange-tweeter sections can differ a lot. Woofers with big voice coils and large magnet structure produce a signal called Back EMF in the circuit. Without the boring details, Back EMF is a factor in the effective load an amp "sees" in the speaker circuit, and makes the speaker more difficult to control. Also, modern multi-woofer bass sections often seem to be designed with rather low impedances for various reasons, and the load is often capacitive in nature. Low impedance capacitive loads are also difficult to drive, so, in effect, complex multi-woofer bass sections muck up amplifiers to some extent. Finally, generating 40Hz and deeper tones can use a lot of power. Many speakers that claim 40Hz response are actually only producing 86-88db per 2.83v at 1 meter into 4 ohms (typical), and the 40Hz bass that shakes the room often needs 105+db of level at 1 meter for the right effect. 17db of additional level requires over 100 watts into 4 ohms in the scenario I've just described, while the midrange-tweeter section may be snoozing along at only 85-90db, or 1-2 watts. So some people think the heavy load of bass signals can sully the fidelity of the mids and highs that need only a watt or two on average.

But what really happens? Well, a lot of this is hypothetical double-talk. With adequate amplifier power there's little or no measured evidence that passive-amping is better than buying one amp with double the power. Two 100watt amps will almost always cost more than one 200 watt amp of similar quality. The key factor is that for mids and highs the first 2-3 watts of power is absolutely critical, and a complex woofer section just might destablize an amp enough that someone could hear a difference with a dedicated amp for each section. But it's theory, and I've seen no measured evidence that the destablizations would be AUDIBLE. So if you have complex loudspeakers with difficult drive characteristics and you have money to spare you might hear a difference. Or not...

What do I think? I think that money is usually better spent on a higher quality single amp than two amps for bi-amping, unless you're already in the top eschelon of amp quality (think $5000+ for one or two channels). (And some people would say you just take the money and buy better speakers. But that's another discussion altogether.) And very few speakers are complex enough to even make a good bi-amping argument in the first place. Of course, if you have such complex speakers you probably have enough money to indulge a few eccentricities, like bi-amping. :)
 
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bbakken82

Audioholic Intern
I have a pioneer elite vsx54tx receiver that allows me to hook up the surround back speakers (in lieu of a 7.1 setup) to the second set of speaker terminals on my Infinity tower speakers. The speakers are only 1000 dollars a pair and are nothing special. In the menu of the receiver I can select a bi-amp setting that sends the hi and low frequencies out of different terminals. I have the capability to bi-amp so I was just wondering if it is worth the time to even hook it up that way.
 
Irvrobinson

Irvrobinson

Audioholic Spartan
I have a pioneer elite vsx54tx receiver that allows me to hook up the surround back speakers (in lieu of a 7.1 setup) to the second set of speaker terminals on my Infinity tower speakers. The speakers are only 1000 dollars a pair and are nothing special. In the menu of the receiver I can select a bi-amp setting that sends the hi and low frequencies out of different terminals. I have the capability to bi-amp so I was just wondering if it is worth the time to even hook it up that way.
I doubt it'll make a difference, but what the heck? I'm an experimenter by nature, so I'd probably try it just out of curiosity. How much time could it take?
 
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