Bi-amping

Depends on a lot of things, how difficult your speakers are, where they are difficult, and how solid the power supply of the amplifier driving it is.

Erik
801 matrix 3 (and 2) are an easy 6 ohm load with the BAF. See pic 23 on my virtual system. Easily driven by even tube electronics tapped on 4 ohms.

Biamping you need an external crossover to do it properly.
Also biamping is really best left to pros.
It IS difficult to do properly.
Easy to do wrong.
If you have nothing you really want.. more power.. etc. then I say forget buying the second amp.

Hi CT,

Just looked at the Stereophile measurements. I have to say, those were among the best B&W made, at least based on that!

https://www.stereophile.com/content/bw-matrix-801-series-2-loudspeaker-measurements

I would disagree, but just a little, about them with tubes. While the impedance barely drops below 6 Ohms, the rise to over 20 Ohms at about 2 kHz (text says 15, chart says more) could cause a little trouble. I would be tempted to add an impedance correction circuit to see how it behaves.

Best,

E

Sorry for adding more. 

What's interesting also is the impedance rise in the treble, along with a drop in response in the top octave. This is a speaker which might actually cry out for a tube amplifier to bring out the most output in that top octave.

This combination is not uncommon, especially for speakers of the era. 

A solid state amplifier would ignore the impedance rise, and present the top octaves as JA measured. 


Best,

E

Erik
the links you are showing are for the Series 2 801. The 801 that the OP is using, and that I used previously is the Series 3.

There were changes with the Series 3 - away from the Studio requirements and toward the Audiophile; so much so that the Sound Anchor stands for the Series 2 won't even fit on the S3.

S3 used a different crossover than s2 - less component count.
Better isolated mid and hf boards.
Bass inductors with an iron dust core .
Rotating midrange – tweeter head assembly was permanently connected. (from 3 to 4 pin delivering separate ground signals to midrange and tweeter)
Magnetic fluid cooling of the tweeter (like the 800 matrix) - the reason the apoc protection eliminated (circuits needed for this were also removed)

Here is the impedance graph for the 801 S3 sent to me by B&W England years ago. All markings are theirs.

801 Matrix S3

Cheers Chris