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What do you gain from bi-amping Magnepan 1.6s or

OK, I am going to sound naive but I admit I am - simply trying to gain knowledge.
Does bi-amping mean you use one amp for each speaker and if so why? I guess this is what mono-blocks are for and I thought it was a simple case of wiring one amp to one speaker but I read a post on here where a guy was asking if it was possible to bi-amp Magnepan 1-6s and the answers seemed very technical (issues relating to crossovers etc). Anyway, I have a pair of 1.6s and I have use of Parasound JC1s but don't want to damage anything. If I decided to how would I go about this and what have I got to gain. I currently run the 1.6s with a Pass 250.5.
thomastrouble
thomastrouble OP
145 posts
 
With all due respect, should I not ask questions to gain knowledge? I am new to all this as you know but are you suggesting I should ask only the most basic of questions and stay at that point?
narrod
1,064 posts
 
Using a mono amp on each speaker is no different that using a stereo amp. The speaker connection is the same. Bi-amping requires two amplifiers per speaker (one connected to the low and one connected to the high speaker inputs). You may or may not need an external crossover depending on the particular installation and whether or not all four amps are identical.
thomastrouble OP
145 posts
 
Hi Narrod. I see, I always thought a mono amp on each speaker was bi-amping. Four amps then, wow. For all the reading and internet googling I have been doing I missed that. OK, here is a list - what do I actually gain moving up the list:

(1) A stereo amp

(2) Two mono amps (one for each speaker)

(3)Bi-amped (two mono amps for each speaker)

Lets say these were all good quality amps of the same brand, what is the advantage of moving through the list (and the added expense) and is there a great increase in sound quality?
sufentanil's avatar
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sufentanil
776 posts
 
Thoastrouble,

You don't necessarily need 4 separate amps to do biamping.

You simply have 2 stereo amps. One powers the woofers on both speakers, and the other amp powers the tweeters on both speakers. Of course, you need speakers that are capable of being biamped. You can tell this because they have 2 sets of speaker inputs on the back (and often have a jumper between them so that you can connect it to the amp with a simple single connection speaker cable).

Michael
roxy54's avatar
roxy54
2,651 posts
 
I haven't done it myself, but if I understand the theory correctly, the advantage, besides additional power is supposed to be that the one pair of amps that is only producing the mid/treble frequencies can do a better job with lower distortion if it doesn't have to produce bass frequencies. Some also like to do it so that they can use tube amps for mid/treble and solid state for the bottom end.
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