Benefit to Bi-Amping Rti12's?

mufsoman

Looking for opinions or actual experience on whether there will be any benefit to bi-amping my Rti12's with the Rotel 1095 amp?

I would use a Y-splitter for both the Left and Right feed out of the SC07 so each bass and mid/highs can be powered by a separate channel in the Rotel. Rotel has 200wpc x 5 so not sure if there would realy be a noticeable difference vs. current set up? Five channels of the amp are powering L,C,R and surrounds. I would move the surrounds to the SC07.

Would this open up the 12's any more? I'm considering buying a pair of Y's to test and return if necessary, but thought I would ask here first before going through the effort. Thanks

nhhiep

That should give you better sound because now each channel of the amp drives less woofers. I did the same with my HK Signature 2.1 5 channels 100WPC. It sounds better, until I got a Citation 5.1 with 300WPC in bridge mode. Now the Signature 2.1 just sits there useless. I also notice less bright sound.

If you can bridge your amp to get more WPC, do it. My setup is almost like yours; AVR powers Center and Rears.

but I'd say try it anyway, you have nothing to lose.

Dawgfish

I tried bi-amping a set of Rti-12s I used to have with good results. I say try it and see for yourself.

Joe08867

The only way to really know is to try. If you were bi-amping off the Pioneer I would say don't waste your time but off of a separate amp you should here some sonic differences.

Geoff4rfc

I tried bi-amping my A9's for a while and went back to a single amp and homemade jumpers.

Like Dawg and Joe recommended, give it a try and let your ears decide.

deronb1

I bi-amped my 12s weirdly and it DID make a difference. I ran the tops off my AVR (110 wpc) and ran the bottoms off an amp (150 wpc) low end really came out better. Then when I got a 220 wpc amp, I wired it back traditionally and it sounded even better. Guess what I am saying is that if you have enough juice, you don't really need to bi-amp them for them to reach their potential.

erniejade

Are you using the stock jumpers? Are you using bi wire? How are they currently connected? WHen i took the stock jumpers out and put dh labs jumbers in to match the dh labs cables I am using, it made one heck of a differece. I havent tried bi amping mine. Maybe before I sell one of the sunfires and i have some extra time, i will try it on mine.

ravaneli

newegg had send me a 40% off coupon for the A1s a few times. Look out for a great deal and grab then, and then tell the wife u bought them on craigslist used and everyone is happy.

While I agree that RTi A is kinda bright, these speakers have great detail and are really nice for HT, which is what you will be using them for. It just gives some extra spark in the movies.

mufsoman

The 12's are bi-wired to avoid using the brass jumpers. My homemade biwire speakers cables (monoprice 12 ga) have separate nanner and spade terminations at the amp end (essentially 2 cables bundled) so the bi-amping trial will be easy enough, other than needing to buy the Y connectors. Hopefully I'll get to it this weekend. I'll update with my findings.

Geoff4rfc

ravaneli wrote: »

newegg had send me a 40% off coupon for the A1s a few times. Look out for a great deal and grab then, and then tell the wife u bought them on craigslist used and everyone is happy.

While I agree that RTi A is kinda bright, these speakers have great detail and are really nice for HT, which is what you will be using them for. It just gives some extra spark in the movies.

Do you have any idea what thread you're posting in? Did you know that this thread has nothing to do with A1's? Did you also know that this thread has nothing to do with RTiA's at all?

This thread is about a member asking about bi-amping RTi12's.

mufsoman

Getting back to the original topic.....does it matter which end the Y adapter gets put on? Should I place the Y at the AVR outs and use two IC's to the amp OR use one IC from the AVR with the Y just before the amp? My engineering brain says it shouldn't matter where the signal gets split. Am I missing something??? It makes a big difference as to what Y adapters I buy, male - female or female - male.

nhhiep

Same thing, but option 2 uses 1 less IC. I did just that before. But if you can bridge the amp, it probably yield better result.

mufsoman

I ran the test over the weekend. I purchased two AudioQuest Y adapters from BB and bi-amped the Rti12's with the Rotel. The Y adapters went on the amp end of the IC's. There definately was a difference in the sound. More detail is the best I can explain it. Not a slap in yo face difference, but definately an incremental change for the good. So I think I'm keeping it this way. I've ordered some Morrow Audio IC's to eliminate my old no name cables and will drive the surrounds with the SC07.

Also played with some accoustic panels (6# mineral wool, 2" thk) and 7.1 (vs. 5.1 in old set up). We watched Act of Valor last night and the sound really rocked. Now I have more projects: 1) finishing the DIY build of the accoustic panels and 2) repositioning the surround and back speakers to optimize for 7.1. Always tweaking.....

Joe08867

nhhiep wrote: »

Same thing, but option 2 uses 1 less IC. I did just that before. But if you can bridge the amp, it probably yield better result.

This is probably the worst way to get better audio out of your amp. Bridging the amp will make it louder but not cleaner.
If a defined difference is what you are after, than I would stick with the OP's plan.

Bridging the amp will add a fair amount of distortion to the signal.

nguyendot

I have the same amp and bi-amping yielded minimal results. That amp is a beast, however. I use it as a boat anchor these days since I have no where else to store it

nhhiep

Joe08867 wrote: »

This is probably the worst way to get better audio out of your amp. Bridging the amp will make it louder but not cleaner.
If a defined difference is what you are after, than I would stick with the OP's plan.

Bridging the amp will add a fair amount of distortion to the signal.

I agree with you, at least in theory. But in real world, at least with my system (maybe depend on the amp design), I can't hear any distortion. but I can clearly hear better bass because of more power and current in bridge mode.

Inspector 24

I posed this question about my A9's. The response that made the most sense to me convinced me NOT to bother with Bi-Amping:

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?129691-RTiA9-Bi-Amping&p=1733613&viewfull=1#post1733613

The woofers are the power hogs. The midrange and tweeter will not use near the power the 4 woofers will.

Say the top (two mids, and 1 tweeter) section only takes 50 watts to maintain a given volume. You have 85 watts of unused power. The 4 woofers would only have 135w on hand. The 85w that isnt being used is not avalable for the woffers because they are operating on their own circuit.

So you end up with a volume imbalance between the mid/high and lows. Didn't sound appealing so I never did it.

Instead I nabbed a Parasound HCA-2003, rated for a conservative 200wpc...likely more like 220wpc. The A9's opened up like I couldn't believe. Bass was punchy and deep, and everything was very open and clear beyond comfortable listening volumes.

mufsoman

Inspector24 - If I understand this correctly, then bridging at 270w is better than bi-amping at 135w (just from a watt comparison standpoint) because the 270w gets distributed at a higher wattage to the power hungary bass circuit vs. bi-amped. I get that. However, when comparing bi-amping vs. standard wiring (which is what I'm looking at), the bi-amping should still be an improvement with regards to the wattage applied to the bass for the same reason. In bi-amping, the bass will get a full 200wpc (in my set up) without sharing the wattage with the mid/highs as in a standard set up.

If I were to purchase a new amp in the future to improve the wattage levels per channel and consider going back to bi-wiring or jumpers, it would need to have enough wpc such that the split between the two circuits would net more watts in the bass than 200w I'm currently supplying the bass with in the bi-amped set up. Correct?

I think my brain is starting to hurt.......