[amdan]

Hi,

I currently have a Bryston 14B ST. It is powering a pair of B&W 703s. Is there any advantage in getting a 3B SST to run the mids and the tweeters and using the 14B ST for the woofers?
I imagine that the 14B ST has enough power however am wondering if bi amping will provide other benefits - separation of the signal etc.

Thanks,

[James Tanner]

Hi amdan,

Generally I recommend one large amplifier over 2 smaller amplifiers simply because the extra power provides control advantages with most speakers.

That being said there are some advantages to PASSIVE BIAMPING.

1 It will net you about 1dB more dynamic range in the system.

2.If the amplifier driving the bass speaker is being pushed at all the amplifier driving the Mid/Tweeter is out of that loop and is not affected by the distortions of the difficult drive conditions in the bass.

3. You may perfer the sound of a particular amplifier on the tweeter or mid range driver and therefore choose the amplifiers accordingly.

One caution - make sure that the 2 amplifiers you are using have the same GAIN. They can be different power levels aslong as they have the same gain. With Bryston amplifiers you can mix and match any power range and still maintain the same gain characteristics.

james

[amdan]

James,

Thanks for the advice. I have just bi amped with a Primare and it sounds better - more depth and more warmth. To my ears the tonal balance sounds right. I presume the Primare has the same gain as the Bryston. If anyone knows different please let me know.

I will try biamping with another Bryston when I get the chance.

[Alfalfa]

Hi James,

I also have a question regarding bi-amping: would a combination of 4 7B's (two per channel that is) give (nearly) just as good results compared to the 28B's that are coming out? I can imagine you having tried this before developping 28B's.  Would the 7B ST's and 7B SST's be suitable for this (gain) and which amplifier would you suggest using on which section (bass/mid/high) of the PMC IB2's?

Does the BP 26 have double balanced outputs?

[Sebastiaan de Vries]

Hi James,

I also have a question regarding bi-amping: would a combination of 4 7B's (two per channel that is) give (nearly) just as good results compared to the 28B's that are coming out? I can imagine you having tried this before developping 28B's.  Would the 7B ST's and 7B SST's be suitable for this (gain) and which amplifier would you suggest using on which section (bass/mid/high) of the PMC IB2's?

Does the BP 26 have double balanced outputs?

Dear Alfa,

I read your PM but I will answer here in publick. The gains of the 7BST and the 7BSST are equal. The biggest difference between the ST and SST are they way more refinded, more open midrange and clean highes. Where the ST can sound a little bit harsch the SST sound completly transparant and more laidback. It think the difference is huge. So I advice the 7BSST on the midhighes.

Like I said in my PM you may try my 7BSST's

The other side of the story is that your PMC's have a x-over point of 380Hz. from there the signal go's to the mid dome and the high dome tweeter. a 7BSST's might be a little bit overkill there. I think a 28BSST will be more shocking here. in other ways you can consider to drive the PMC's fullrange with the 7BSST's (after you tried you will be convinced!) and sell the 7BST. invest the remaining money in a better pre-amp and/or room correctie

For the last word in slamm, black background, ease and sensation I think you will end up with the 28BSST's just like I will But it is just a guess for now

The BP26 has double balanced outputs

Best Regards,
Bas

[Alfalfa]

Great Bas (or should I call you Bass  , I really appreciate that! We will work details out by PM!

Still like to try biamping also through the BP26 though...!

[nicolasb]

Bi-amping is a tricky subject. Using two identical amps to bi-amp will almost always sound better than using just one of those amps alone, but whether it will sound better than using a single amp with double the power output is much less certain. Whether it will sound sufficiently much better to justify the cost involved is even less certain - as a rule changes to the power amp have less effect per penny on the sound quality than changes to anything else, so long as the amp isn't actually clipping. You should usually spend money on upgrading the speakers, pre-amp, source, and room acoustics before thinking about the power amp.

The efficacy of bi-amping depends on what problem you're trying to solve. If what you're trying to do is prevent the different speaker elements from interacting with each other (e.g. a poorly damped woofer creating back-e.m.f across the mid-range and tweeter) then more electrical isolation is what's needed, and bi- or tri-amping will help.

If the problem is a lack of power then you may well be better off using a single, larger amp. The bass drivers use up most of the power. If we suppose that they use up 75%, using a single, 300W amp allows the bass drivers to suck up 225W. Switching to a pair of 300W amps only increases the bass power reserve to 300W. But switching to a single 600W amp lets them use 450W (and leaves more in reserve for the midrange and tweeters as well). So a single, high-power amp will probably be a better solution for correcting a lack of bass control, or any tendency to clipping in any of the drivers caused by a lack of power.

Which of these two problems is the more important to solve (lack of power/bass control, or poor driver isolation) varies from speaker to speaker. I've heard of people getting better results from bi- and tri-amping PMC speakers, and better results from using a higher-powered amp with B&W speakers, but that might just have been one particular model in each case.

Also bear in mind that a new, more powerful amp that also has lower distortion will probably help more than keeping the higher distortion amp and adding a second one.