Po' Mans Bi-amp.. or Not!

OldBenKnobi

I own a Pioneer VSX-921 7.1 channel reciever. 80W continuous power. I recently upgraded from a pair of Polk 5Jr+'s to a pair of Monitor 70 Series II speakers that are bi-ampable. Right now I have them bi-wired, but I was thinking about using the B speaker output to power to HF section and the A mains to power the bass section.
The reason for this particular layout is because the Pioneer does not downmix LFE info to the B channel so I figured to send that signal to the HF half and the A mains(with LFE info) to the bottom end.

Question 1 - Would this work ok?

Question 2 - Would this induce any problems with phase, etc.


Thanks in advance for any input!

EndersShadow

Question 1: It might work, but its not worth the effort IMHO since I doubt you will hear a difference.

OldBenKnobi

I was thinking that the speaker would be a little cleaner with more power. Monitor 70's seem to like more power. Instead of 80w of power to the speaker, It should be 160 watts unless I'm way off base, Dedicated 80w power to the HF section and 80w to the LF section.

I just don't want to harm my Receiver. I'm willing to experiment to find the truth if it's safe to try.

nguyendot

You won't hear any difference.

michael1947

I believe...strong on the believe, that when you remove the jumper on your M70's they in effect become 2 separate speakers therefore they would like 2 separate feeds from something however I doub't your 921 will have enough mustard to send 80 watts to to 4 speakers. I think the M70's are rated up to 275 watts so whatever you can get out of your receiver they will lick up. Also, I have always felt that the power coming from the "B" side was lower so if I were to do such an operation I may first wire up the top with the "B" side as they will not require as much power as the hungry base section. Best of luck.

OldBenKnobi

nguyendot wrote: »

You won't hear any difference.

Thanks for your Opinion.

I might even consider it valid if you had posted any info, facts, etc. to back up your claim.

EndersShadow

OldBenKnobi wrote: »

Thanks for your Opinion.

I might even consider it valid if you had posted any info, facts, etc. to back up your claim.

Not to be a dick, but if you were to use the search feature on this site you would see this topic has been covered more times than most can count. In those threads there is all kinds of information and whatnot.

These threads pop up enough its easier to just be blunt and let you do the fact searching

OldBenKnobi

EndersShadow wrote: »

Not to be a dick, but if you were to use the search feature on this site you would see this topic has been covered more times than most can count. In those threads there is all kinds of information and whatnot.

These threads pop up enough its easier to just be blunt and let you do the fact searching

Did a search. Didn't turn up anything useful. It's ok to be a dick, You do it so well :-)

EndersShadow

Try this:

https://www.google.com/search?as_q=bi+amp&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&lr=&cr=&as_qdr=all&as_sitesearch=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.polkaudio.com%2Fforums%2F&as_occt=any&safe=images&tbs=&as_filetype=&as_rights=

nguyendot

OldBenKnobi wrote: »

Thanks for your Opinion.

I might even consider it valid if you had posted any info, facts, etc. to back up your claim.

I second the "you should search, that's what it is there for".

But since you can't grasp how to search for something...

Your receiver is woefully underpowered and won't provide any more power in "biamp" mode.. Also, did you even bother to look if this receiver can bi-amp? Doesn't look like an option for it in the manual. So where is your second set of amplification coming from? You do know that A and B channels are derived from the same set of amplifiers, right? Meaning you're just ghetto bi-wiring. On top of that - the part where it says that it doesn't downmix LFE... means that IF you have the B output enabled, you get NO LFE output, and the signal goes nowhere. The A and the B outputs are ALWAYS identical as they are derived from the same amplifier outputs.

Once again. Don't bother. You won't hear a difference. You won't get any more or less power (you are using the same amplifier, through 4 speaker posts instead of 2). And next time, try to avoid the dick moves. Being a **** won't get you far here.

tonyb

Relax guys.....

As far as this poor mans bi-amping goes, go ahead, knock your socks off and give it a whirl. Let us know what you think. Who knows you may like it.

F1nut

It's not even a matter of a poor man's bi-amping. That AVR does not have a bi-amp option, period.

tonyb

OldBenKnobi wrote: »

I was thinking that the speaker would be a little cleaner with more power. Monitor 70's seem to like more power. Instead of 80w of power to the speaker, It should be 160 watts unless I'm way off base, Dedicated 80w power to the HF section and 80w to the LF section.

I just don't want to harm my Receiver. I'm willing to experiment to find the truth if it's safe to try.

Adding 2 more channels to power speakers gives all 4 channels less power. A receiver, especially an entry level one, has a poor power supply to begin with, and is shared by all channels. So asking it to do more does not double the power. Your certainly free to try it out though, your gear, your coin.

nguyendot

As I said in my previous post (in too many words), and H9 has reiterated - this server doesn't even support bi-amping. Your journey to bi-amping ends here for that receiver.

heiney9

Nope

H9

nguyendot

Whoops, was reading so many of your posts before I replied H9. I meant to say F1

btrots

I had my Yamaha HTR-6090 "bi-amped" to my RTI A7's for the longest time. They call it bi-amp in the manual, but as stated above, really it's just bi-wiring since both posts are taking power from the same amp. Was a waste of time, and speaker cable.

Best article I came across regarding bi-amping (the right way). Technical to be sure, but convincing.

http://sound.westhost.com/bi-amp.htm

Now I have my new RTI A9's bi-amped properly.