Disconnect the woofer

Contrary to audiophile wisdom, crossover networks "soak up" almost no power, even when all the drivers are connected. If they did they would get hot, and if mounted in a sealed enclosure stuffed with fiberglass or wool, very hot.

Agreed. They don't soak up much power. However they do act as a bottleneck or choke and any voltage drop across the crossover means less amplifier power reaches the speaker drivers.

Perhaps you've never seen an EQing X-over, such as that in the Rogers, Harbeth, Chartwell, Spendor or KEF LS3/5A, LS5/9 and other BBC approved monitors, the Harbeth HL-P3(with it's 21 element crossover) and so on. There are a number of trim resistors, shunt coils(some that act as autotransformers), and caps that are in the notching/shelving circuits and go to ground from the positive input(the main reason they are so stinking inefficient). If these are not removed from the LF signal path, they WILL dissipate energy as designed, but even more as the woofer will not be in the circuit as a load. That's why I asked what his crossover looked like. There are too many variables to make a blanket(uneducated) statement. ie: What would occur in this system, if the woofer were simply removed: (http://www.syer.net/images/DAHLQUIST_DQ10Schems.jpg) YES- The best/most accurate way to bi-amp is via an active x-over, before the power amps. The second best, is to separate the HF/LF sections of the existing crossover, install two new terminals and use identical amps on both sections(either horizontally or vertically).

Rodman99999...I don't have a schematic of such a complex crossover. Have you calculated the power dissipation? (I bet it is darned small). If you can't do it, provide a schematic and I will.

What amount of power would be dissipated would not concern me. You brought that up. The signal degradation, resulting from by those devices dissipating energy, and the differences in a circuit's impedances brought about by removing a reactive device(the woofer) would be my concern. How accurately do you suppose the midwoofer in the system(schematic) I posted would perform, were the woofer removed from the circuit? What I'm pointing out is that it's foolish to make blanket statements, without knowing the design of the OP's crossover.

Rodman99999...The originator of this thread was concerned about "crossover parts that make up the low pass to the woofer still using up energy from my amp".

If you check my prior comment you will see that I was also concerned about the effect on the high pass signals.