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Hi, I have read most of the threads on biamping (horizontal and vertical). I want to use 2 CAT JL2's (only currently own one) in a horizontal biamping configuration. I have read (on this site) that a more powerful amp is required to drive the bass (four times more powerful). I have also heard from people on and off this site that they have used two identical stereo amps in a horizontal biamped
configuration to excellent effect (no power mismatch from bass to the rest of the spectrum). Can some people who have tried this comment please. I am more interested in real world experience than theory. Thanks for your comments.
Follow Ups:
If you only currently own one CAT JL2 and plan to buy a second, then you can experiment running your speakers horizontally or vertically biamped. You have two amps with the same gain and the same power output ... so you're not constrained like people who have 2 amps with the same gain but different power outputs are.Whether "vertical" biamping is better than "horizontal" or vv IMO depends on your speakers (mainly, the XO frequency) and your amps. If they are configured with one PS shared between 2 channels then you probably *will* notice a difference. If they're dual-mono or monoblocks then I believe you won't!
Regards,
I’ve experimented with two amps vs one several times. In 3 of 3 tries with different brands, found one amp was better than two of equal power. In each case used two of the same amps, my understanding is you need an active crossover to try biamping with different amps. You can experiment for yourself by running your existing amp to just the lows off each speaker or to the high and low of one speaker.
Thanks for the responses. Saltyflies, many agon and AA posters have reported improvements through passive biamping. Most claim vertical is the way to go but those that have actually tried both methods with 2 identical amps claim they preferred horizontal biamping. Can you elaborate a bit more on your experience? What type amps were used. Did you try vertical and horizontal biamping? What differences were perceived? I guess you decided that there was minimal or no improvement and sold the second amp? Thanks in advance for your response.
Thanks for the thorough response Saltyflies. You hit the jackpot with your wife. Women that enjoy sitting and listening to music are a rare breed. Someone (I think on Audiogon) posted a query about the lack of women involved in this hobby. One woman responded and
it was interesting.
Hi Bart -
If you’ve not done so already, there’s a great article about biamping in the FAQ section worth reading. At the time was dealing with WAF issues (ie. Why can’t we put the stuff in the antique amoire?)and explored vertical biamping with two smaller amps vs one big one.- With Bryston, with the exception of the 7B-ST having more headroom sounds identical to the 4b-ST. Two 4B-ST's vs one 7B-ST sounds and performed identically, same headroom, etc.…couldn’t tell the difference. It could be how the power supply is configured.
- With Classe, the larger CA-301 offered more headroom, dynamic weight, and control compared individually to the CA-101, CA-201 and vs a pair of CA-101. However, the CA-101 and CA-201 were more alike to each other than the CA-301. I was told the 301 has some of the higher Omega line stuff and the two smaller ones do not. The differences vs without the omega technology is pretty distinct, so two CA-101 vs the CA-301 maynot be a valid example.
- With Plinius, the SA-250 was fuller, more headroom and more effortless than two SA-102. Everything else was very similiar.
My wife is stubborn about cosmetics, but won’t give up sound quality to get it. Perhaps our ears or system are less acute, but didn’t hear the better seperation, less crosstalk improvements others describe. We both concluded a single amp was more dynamic, effortless than two smaller ones of equal power. Eventually, moved everything (sans armoire) to another part of the house b/c she did get tired of seeing a big mess of stuff and cabling in middle of living room.
Believe what your ears say - not hearsay.
The loudspeakers XO is designed to give a coherent sound from the drivers. If you use different amps, you might loose that coherence. The benefits from biamping also seems to differ from setup to setup. If your current amplifier has no problem with driving your existing speakers, I'm not shure if I would have bothered.
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