Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Bi-amplification?

Theoretical peak, yes, but since you're unlikely to be getting close to theoretical peak, then probably not. Then again, more headroom is more headroom...

I know many report hearing better low end from passive bi-amping and, as you have indicated, you now have an amp that is not losing any power to produce the top end of the spectrum it is able to push a little more for the low end requirements of the speaker. Is it a night and day thing? I haven't read anywhere that it is and in my own brief experience the benefit wasn't worth the effort but I didn't have an amp set up like you are proposing. Give it a try

No, mistico; the 200 watt amplifiers are still just 200 watt amplifiers. Using them with the same internal crossover in the speaker can't somehow increase their power capability; each section of the speaker can get 200 watts, as was the case before.

That's what you gain: headroom. You are making sure your hi-mid and mid-bass each get all off 200 watts they want. With only one amp you have 200 to spread across all speakers, but it is not 400 watts and neither set of speakers has access to 400 watts of power. they each still only have access to 200. Your set up helps when ch 1 (mid-hi, etc) sucks so much of the power tha ch 2 (mid-bass) would otherwise be limited to less than 200 in that instant.

I still don't get this internal/external crossover issue. How does that matter in this discussion? in the set up I describe above, one amp has a direct line to the mid-bass and one separate has a direct line to the tweeter. Why does it matter where the crossover lives?

OK, well, here's the deal: tweeters almost never need 200 watts, or whatever. So you're really gaining almost nothing with passive biamping. Ooh, 2 more watts, or whatever at millisecond peaks.

Active biamping, where the crossover is external, ie, before the amps, lets you use appropriate amps to the drivers. The link to the active/passive article in the article I linked talks about this.

I see and understand what you're saying and I appreciate you explaning this more than once.

So why is it not sinking in then.

Oh, it sunk in...after reading it a few times hehehe.

But each section would receive 200watts vs 200watts for both sections. Here we go again...

It's been a good discusion and much has been learned.

I think it comes down to how good your amp actually is, I am certain I would not hear any difference passive biamping the M80's with the A1400, but with my 3808 I could hear a slightly better lower end, but I didn't feel it was worth the extra effort and money to keep it set up that way, as my PB13 is usually on and takes care of the low end much better than the 3808 and M80's do when biamped.