Michael R Price
Screenwriter
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2001
- Messages
- 1,591
Crossover modifications are great! But passively highpassing your midwoofers at 70Hz is crazy.
To say this is not true Bi Amping is ridiculous IMHO. This
method of seperating the XO Regions allows you loads of
flexibility to do things like mingle Tube gear and S.S gear
or add more power to one particular section, or just add
more power on all sections of the XO.
There are immense benefits to be gained here!
I agree, my system is composed of an Aragon 8008 powering the bass driver x-over and an EAR 534 tube amp powering the mid/tweeter x-over. Prior to doing this the Aragon sounded ok but I wanted the sweet, smooth midrange sound tubes offer so I bought the EAR 534 which is only 50 wats/channel.
The mids were sweet but at higher volume, there was smearing due to the impedance drop(3 ohms) in my B&W N804's.
As a lark I tried passive bi-amping and it worked beautifully, mind you I'm using a 200 wt/channel SS Aragon amp and a tube amp so I don't know if you will hear a difference using 2 identical amps with the same tonal character.
I now have rock solid bass and beautiful midrange to go with it and if I really crank it up, the N804's produce low bass, bass I've never gotten out of them prior to this method. My EAR tube amp has a higher sensitivity but it has attenuation so I can back of the volume in both channels to blend the 2 amps. That's very important if you use 2 different amps.
I never would have believed the increase in dynamics and soundstage(mainly because of the tube amp)that passive biamping has given to my system, YMMV.
If I go the passive biamping route, will I get any benefits driving each speaker section since my speakers are setup to take advantage of such configurations?
Well, Linn says you will notice an improvment. Lower distortion, better dynamics, better bass control.
Me...I just couldn't reliably hear it. That doesn't mean YMMV though.
Now if you can ever swing active...that's a whole 'nuther thing!
What is obvious to me, is that both of you have made an alteration in the 'sound' of your system and if it's good to your ears, then by all means you've only yourselve's to satisfy.
My EAR tube amp has a higher sensitivity but it has attenuation so I can back of the volume in both channels to blend the 2 amps. That's very important if you use 2 different amps.