[Spirit]

I have the ability to biamp my system but am not technically edeucated enough to decide if the biamping should be vertical or horizontal.
Interestingly enough, I Googled "Biamp How to" and found 2 articles on the subject with completely contrary opinions.
The 2 power amps that I have are identical which will be ideal for Vertical and I also realize that this method is simpler to connect.
I am mostly trying to learn which one is sonically superior if at all.

[Daygloworange]

I think you should run just one amp, and give me the other one. 

Cheers

[Daygloworange]

Just kidding, Spirit. 

Actually, I have a pair of stereo amps, and have been wondering the same thing.

Cheers

[Spirit]

I think you should run just one amp, and give me the other one. 

Cheers

Is your hammer nailing the wood or you head?

[Daygloworange]

When you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail.....

Cheers

[konut]

Both methods have their +s and -s. A few more details sbout your system would help sort out the sichiashun. Such as speakers, crossovers, xover point, and amps.

[TomS]

I used two Electrocompaniet Ampliwire 100's on Vandersteens for a long time.  I generally found that I liked using one amp vertically on each channel at least made my brain think it had a little more headroom than asking one amp to do both woofers (overworked) and the other to do the mid/tweets (underworked).  It was also far more convenient in terms of cabling     Of course, it really depends on your system as others have said.  Tom

[Daygloworange]

In theory I would agree that vertically seems like the better way to go, by virtue of having the load of the 2 woofers spread across two amps.

But what about if you were to go horizontally, wouldn't the fact that there isn't the woofer load on the amp, going to result in a cleaner mid-range?

TomS,

Did you ever A/B just running one amp to the two speakers, versus bi-amping? If so, how would you describe the gains,(and in what areas specifically?).

Cheers

[TomS]

Did you ever A/B just running one amp to the two speakers, versus bi-amping? If so, how would you describe the gains,(and in what areas specifically?).

It was a long time ago so I don't remember a lot of specifics, but I know I tried every possible combo - single stereo amp on both single-wired, single stereo amp on both bi-wired, two stereo amps vertical, two stereo amps horizontal.  The best combo was the vertical biamp.  The effect is exactly as you described - the mid/tweet was much cleaner and seemed to have more headroom to play without strain.  At modest levels, I honestly couldn't tell much difference.  The Vandies took a fair amount of power to drive and seemed to bloom a little more with all this power applied independently to uppers and lowers.  They are fairly laid back by nature, but this tended to wake them up a bit.

[YoungDave]

Vertical worked best for me - it seems to give a better soundstage with one speaker using its own amp.  Rather like monoblocks (bi-blocks?) for left & right.

[electricbear]

I'm with TomS on this one. With identical amps a vertical biamp is generally better.

[Russell Dawkins]

Theoretically, the only situation where there would not be an advantage to the vertical biamping would be where each channel in each of the amplifiers has its own separate power supply.

This is seldom the case, so vertical bi-amping is the way I would go. This way each power supply is available to each woofer giving almost double the effective power and making maximum use of the power supply.

 Also, the amp can be close to the speaker if you want, reducing the speaker wire costs.

I know that vertically bi-amping my Tannoy Ardens made a huge difference for the better.

[Spirit]

Here is a very detailed article that I found by Googling.
http://sound.westhost.com/bi-amp.htm
He basically states that Vertical is a waste of money.
For those of you who are very technically inclined and have the time to
print out and read in the bathroom, I would really like to read some of your comments.

[TomS]

He states it more as an issue of economics which we all know doesn't apply to this crazy hobby, because we still want to know the answer of whether it CAN and does sound better, not necessarily how much better

Comparing passive bi-amping and actively bi-amped speakers is a whole different discussion which has been covered in threads by some really bright and experienced people who come at it from seemingly every possible direction. 

Unfortunately it's no simple matter to convert a speaker with a passive xo to active.  Normally it's not as simple as just connecting up the drivers directly to the amps and putting the active xo ahead of them.  With DEQX we're definitely closer to that but it takes a lot of integration work and measuring.

Myself, I'd take a properly designed and integrated active xo/power amps/drivers setup anyday.  A friend has the Paradigm Active/20's which I think are spectacular systems compared to the passive Studio 20 brethren, which I've owned.

[Bob Reynolds]

Here is a very detailed article that I found by Googling.
http://sound.westhost.com/bi-amp.htm
He basically states that Vertical is a waste of money.
For those of you who are very technically inclined and have the time to
print out and read in the bathroom, I would really like to read some of your comments.

You found the article I always cite regarding biamping. He is saying that "passive" biamping, which is what you are contemplating, does not give the benefit that "active" biamping does. He says that if the single amp you already own has ample power, then it does not pay to buy another identical amp. You will not get the benefit to justify the cost.  If you already own two identical amps, then obviously his economic reasoning does not apply.

If you have two identical amps lying around, then my all means do the vertical scenario and shorten the speaker cables. Whether you'll hear any sonic improvement is probably determined by how under powered your single amp is for your speakers.

[Daygloworange]

Spirit,

Unless I missed it, I didn't read where he states that vertical bi-amping is a waste.

He pretty much states at the beginning that there is a benefit to bi-amping. Albeit, that he is in favor of active crossovers.Then at the bottom of the article, he adds up all the positive reasons.

The ones that immediately came to mind to me as I contemplate bi-amping are the fact that(in my case) you have 2 toroidal transformers, 2 times the capacitor storage for current, 2 separate power supplies, total L/R channel separation.

I'm going to assume lower overall distortion, and as I understand speakers being a reactive load, an easier load to drive for each amp. I'm also wondering if the fact that the amp is only seeing the impedance curve from one speaker, that that is a lot easier for one amp as well. (or is that the same thing as the reactive load thing I mentioned earlier?)

Cheers

[Dan Driscoll]

Strictly my own personal opinion:

With identical amps and passive x-overs vertical bi-amping makes the most sense. Even with active x-overs and identical amps, I still think vertical is the way to go, it keeps the amp loads symmetrical.

I only like horizontal bi-amping when using different amps and active x-overs. The classic configuration is a solid state amp driving the woofers and a tube amp driving the mid-range and tweeter. But active x-overs are a must, you don't want the tube amp getting the bass frequencies or the SS amp getting the high freqs.

[Charles Calkins]

I did vertical biamping years ago when I had two Nad 218THX amps. I couldn't hear any difference between biamping or using the amps in mono. No crossovers were involved.


                                   Cheers
                                  Charlie

[PaulPi]

I agree with Dan. With the horizontal bi-amping you can choose different power amps each one with its best characteristics in its operating frequency range. I strongly suggest an active x-over; with two active bi-amped 60W amps you can assemble a 240W-equivalent system! Or at least this is what I understood from http://www.firenzeaudio.com/tech_multi.htm

Cheers

[JoshK]

Theoretically, the only situation where there would not be an advantage to the vertical biamping would be where each channel in each of the amplifiers has its own separate power supply.

Even still there is a theoretical advantage to vertical because in a dual mono, you still share a common ground and depending on the topology can have to shunt a lot of crap, causing cross talk.  I'd go with vertical, for channel seperation reasons and also because the higher drivers require less power than the lower ones, so PSU sharing is more ideal in stereo amps vertically.

I only like horizontal bi-amping when using different amps and active x-overs. The classic configuration is a solid state amp driving the woofers and a tube amp driving the mid-range and tweeter. But active x-overs are a must, you don't want the tube amp getting the bass frequencies or the SS amp getting the high freqs.

Also a good point.