Presence speakers or bi-amp main speakers?

[Augie]

Hi,

I'm in the process of setting up my home AV system and have the option of bi-amping my main speakers or assigning the remaining two amplifier channels of the receiver to presence speakers. The room configuration unfortunately is not well suited to the placement of rear surrounds (too narrow). My listening is a mix of music and video programming/movies. I have never listened to a system with presence speakers, so I thought I would ask those in the know. Thanks.

Here is the current audio setup:

Yamaha RX-V2700 - receiver
Monitor Audio Gold Reference 20 - main speakers
(these are already internally wired for bi-amping)
Monitor Audio Radius720 - sub
Monitor Audio Bronze - center
Monitor Audio Radius90 - surrounds

I was thinking of picking up smaller Radius45 speakers as presence speakers if that is the best way to go. Any advice is welcome.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

I dont think you are going to gain anything from BI-amping that way. The presence speakers didnt seem to do much for me. I would save that power for a 2nd zone and light up that patio or a bedroom.

 

[sholling]

Bi-amping will gain you 3db of headroom if you need it. It's the route I chose.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

Bi-amping will gain you 3db of headroom if you need it. It's the route I chose.

Using only your AVR?

 

[j_garcia]

Bi-amping will gain you 3db of headroom if you need it. It's the route I chose.

Um, no it won't. It is running off the same power supply.

 

[AVRat]

I’d suggest you try bi-amping first to see if there’s any benefit. I’d use the front amps for the lows and the rear amps for the uppers. On the Gold 20s, bi-amping might help to tighten up the bass.

 

[mtrycrafts]

I’d suggest you try bi-amping first to see if there’s any benefit. I’d use the front amps for the lows and the rear amps for the uppers. On the Gold 20s, bi-amping might help to tighten up the bass.

You have one power supply with a max capability no matter which way you wire it. How will you gain anything by the same receiver?

 

[Augie]

I dont think you are going to gain anything from BI-amping that way. The presence speakers didnt seem to do much for me. I would save that power for a 2nd zone and light up that patio or a bedroom.

Thanks to eveyone that replied. From reading your comments, bi-amping is not the clearcut approach that I thought it was. I have read Clint DeBoer's article "The Difference between biamping vs. biwiring" and have struggled through some of Rod Elliott's article on the subject, though I didn't dig out my scientific calculator . If I understand correctly, the limitations of using one source (receiver) to provide all amplification and the passive internal crossovers of the speakers negates much of potential gains of bi-amping. The Yamaha has lots of clean power. I will give bi-amping a listen, but I think I'll turn my attention to the presence speakers for the cinema effects or wire the bedroom.

 

[Seth=L]

It seems this has been already confirmed, but I will add my take on why using a receiver to bi-amp offers no real benefit. The first has already been touched on, which is the power supply. The Capacitors are also another good reason, because no matter how many channels you use, they will use the same Capacitors. Lastly, the output stages are designed to handle large amounts of output. The mass market receivers like your Yamaha are tested with only 1 or 2 channels driven to give you their output wattage ratings, such as 140 watts per channel. So if you bi-amp using the receiver only, you won't get 560 watts going to your speakers, but you will be getting the same 140 watts-280 depending on how Yamaha rated the amplifier.

 

[Nick250]

To the OP, locate the "All channels Driven Fallacy" thread right here on AudioHolics and read it. It's answers a lot of questions and fills in a lot of blanks. Pretty much a must read IMO.

Nick