bi-amping
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Aaron
Posts: 1,853
I finally got some time and extra speaker wire (thanks Peter) to bi-amp my RT55's. I'm using a Yamaha M-50 120W amp for the highs and an old Sony 3200F 120W amp for the lows, so I'm horizontally bi-amping. So, I hooked everything up and through in one of my favorite test discs. AHHhhh!!! The sound was all high and tinty, like some teenager with the treble dial in their car! It became very obvious very quickly that the output levels of the two amps were quite different. So, I backed off the gain of the Yamaha and the highs returned to a normal level. Unfortunately I don't have an SPL meter to properly calibrate the levels of the two amps.
The next day I was playing around with the balance dial on the preamp. When I shifted everything to the left speaker, only the bass moved over there and the highs stayed on the right speaker. Doh! I had the inputs backwards on the Yamaha amp.
Overall I think the sound quality is worse with the Sony amp added to the mix. I actually think the Sony is more bass-shy and not as tight. I'll probably do a little more listening, and then maybe switch the Sony and Yamaha and see if that makes a difference. I thought the Sony would be better at the lows than the Yamaha, which I think is a little bass-shy itself, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I think detail will be lost with the Sony on the highs, though. We shall see.
Aaron
The next day I was playing around with the balance dial on the preamp. When I shifted everything to the left speaker, only the bass moved over there and the highs stayed on the right speaker. Doh! I had the inputs backwards on the Yamaha amp.
Overall I think the sound quality is worse with the Sony amp added to the mix. I actually think the Sony is more bass-shy and not as tight. I'll probably do a little more listening, and then maybe switch the Sony and Yamaha and see if that makes a difference. I thought the Sony would be better at the lows than the Yamaha, which I think is a little bass-shy itself, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I think detail will be lost with the Sony on the highs, though. We shall see.
Aaron