Want to BiAmp my Klipsch speakers (1 Viewer)

[ShowMeCables]

I want to run 2 separate amps to my Klipsch loudspeakers. All I need is a 2 channel amp. The question is, which amp? I currently have a Denon 2808 receiver and would like to see if speakers sound better with more power. Any thoughts or ideas, please let me know

 

[Jerome Grate]

Does you Klipsch speakers have four speaker posts that allows for bi-amping?

 

[ShowMeCables]

Oh yes.

 

[Jerome Grate]

Cool, how much are you willing to spend? You do have a variety of choices. I think to match your speakers, the minimum you are looking at is about maybe $500.00. Niles have two of them at Best Buy via Magnolia. I've always been a fan of Outlaw amps as well.

 

[Robert_J]

Budget? Boulder amps sound great. The ones I heard retailed for $45,000 each.

 

[John Garcia]

If you aren't currently hearing distortion at the levels you are looking for, and amp won't make your speakers sound "better". This is a common misconception. An amp lets you turn the system up higher before distortion occurs, aka louder. Part of that misconception is that louder is better; people can turn it up louder so they equate it to sounding better, but the reality is, it is just louder. First you need to understand what biamping is. This method would be passive biamping (because the passive crossover inside the speaker remains), for which there is no real evidence to support that it has any benefit. Rather than biamp, you are better off simply buying a quality 2ch amp with sufficient wattage to give you the sound levels you are after. To achieve a 50% increase in output (+3dB), you will need an amp capable of twice the output wattage wise as what you currently have.

 

[ShowMeCables]

I'm looking for a crisper, cleaner sound, so I was thinking if I added some watts to the party, they would sound better. They already sound really good. Just going for Really, really good

 

[John Garcia]

All I am getting at is, don't buy an amp expecting it to transform your speakers into something else.

 

[Jerome Grate]

I get what John is saying here. When I first started in HT over 10 years ago, I had some Jensen speakers, and a Kenwood receiver. When I was ready to graduate into better sound, I purchased a Harman Kardon AVR 500. Hooked it up to the Jensen speakers and the difference in sound was nominal. I purchased some Platinum Audio speakers before they went out of business for about $800.00 and there was a profound difference. So changing or adding an amp may not change the performance of the speakers, the speakers will produce what it can produce for sound. Bi-amping does separate the two frequencies (bass and highs); however as stated earlier, the speaker can only perform at the level the internal cross over performs, unless you put an external crossover on the second amp and modify the sound that way.

 

[John Garcia]

You do technically get more power to the speaker, but if you aren't using it, then what good is that? The amp is still doing the same amount of work in a passive biamp setup because it is still amplifying the whole signal sent to it and it is then being filtered out by the crossover. That's not a benefit. To make it efficient and beneficial, you'd need to filter the sound before the amps; aka an active crossover as Jerome noted, at which point you no longer want the passive crossover in the speaker, etc... That starts to get much more complex and probably isn't relevant.
Even before that, if the problem is the speaker doesn't quite give you want you want sound wise, an amp is not going to make the speaker more clear or transparent. This typically is going to mean it is the speaker not the power. If the OP is saying he likes the sound, I am saying he may be spending money to fix a problem he doesn't have If you are just looking for "MOAR LOUD!", then a good amp will certainly do that, so I am not saying NOT to get an amp.
In other cases, when you hear people say "the speaker opened up after adding an amp", that to me means it was previously not getting sufficient power for what it was being asked to do. The perception is that it improved something, but it really corrected a problem.
Yes, speakers make the single biggest difference in the sound of your system.
What's your price range?

 

[ShowMeCables]

I haven't done any additions to my system in almost 4 years. That being said, I am not sure how much I want to throw at an amp. Maybe find one on Craigslist or something like that. I may look at Cr*tchfield and see what they have, but not looking to spend more than 2-300 bucks

 

[John Garcia]

In that range, you should be able to find some good amps used. Consider Marantz MA6100 monoblocks - you should be able to pick up a pair for around $200 or so. They are small and pretty powerful, despite the 125W rating (THX cert). You might also find Audiosource amps pretty cheap too. I picked up a new Amp300 for $200 and a slightly used one for much less. If you can find some used Outlaw Audio 2200 monoblocks or an Emotiva UPA-2 for a good price, those would be good choices too.
New you might look at the Audiosource Amp210 is $285: http://www.amazon.com/AudioSource-90-Watt-Stereo-250-Watt-Amplifier/dp/B0013D1YLM/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1335297941&sr=8-5
The Onkyo M282 is an external but is likely going to have output more like a receiver, but still having its own power supply is a benefit: http://www.amazon.com/Onkyo-M-282-2-Channel-Power-Amplifier/dp/B000069E2V/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1335297941&sr=8-2