Question about amplifier.....

shawn474

Some of you have commented and helped me with my current set-up. To summarize I just upgraded my speakers to LSI9's and LSI-C and LSI fx's. I have a pioneer elite vsx-21txh that I am running as a pre with my B&K AV5000 for the amplifier. After getting the speakers, I noticed that my amp was not rated to drive 4 ohm speakers. Many have said I shouldn't have a problem and so far I haven't. But trying to maximize performance I am looking to upgrade the amp to drive the speakers better.
I have a parasound monoblock HCA-1201A that I picked up and was going to use that to drive the center channel to see if noticed a difference. But then I got to wondering, could I use the monoblock to drive the center, then bi-amp the lsi 9's to give them more power and run the FX's off of the AVR? I am trying to avoid spending a lot of coin if I can and was wondering if this would be a good alternative. I know that I will eventually get a new 5 channel amp to drive them all but cant afford it right now and am looking for suitable alternatives.

Thanks in advance,
Shawn

falconcry72

Yes, that will work. Give it a whirl!

How are you planning to biamp the fronts? Y-cable out of each front pre-out on the Elite, into (4) different channels on the B&K, with (4) separate speaker cables to the highs/lows of each speaker? Should work fine, just remember to remove the jumpers on the binding posts of the speakers.

I suspect overall performance will be better just using the B&K for all 5 channels though, unless you crank it too high.

Emlyn

I'd recommend sticking with the B&K amp by itself because introducing other amps may make the speakers sound different from each other. At 28 amps peak to peak current capacity the AV5000 is not really a light weight amp. Not sure why they didn't certify the amp for 4 ohm loads, but the similar version II was and at 185 watts into 4 ohm loads. As a point of reference, the Parasound Halo A52 was rated at 30 amps peak to peak with only minor increases in output over what the AV5000 and AV5000 II are capable of.

Since you have the other amp sections available though, no harm in testing things out other than spending time doing it.

PSOVLSK

falconcry72 wrote: »

How are you planning to biamp the fronts? Y-cable out of each front pre-out on the Elite, into (4) different channels on the B&K, with (4) separate speaker cables to the highs/lows of each speaker? Should work fine, just remember to remove the jumpers on the binding posts of the speakers.

Will this also work with the Y-cable on the amp end? The difference being that you would only be using one (2) IC's instead of (4). Would both ways produce the same results?

falconcry72

PSOVLSK wrote: »

Will this also work with the Y-cable on the amp end? The difference being that you would only be using one (2) IC's instead of (4). Would both ways produce the same results?

Yea, should work both ways. The bottleneck would most likely be the Y-cable, so it wouldn't matter much if you were using 4 IC's or 2.

PSOVLSK

Thanks. That's what I thought, but I didn't know for sure.

shawn474

My thought was to run channel 1 of amp to the bottom speaker terminals and channel 2 to the top speaker terminals on the right front speaker. Then do the same with channels 3 and 4 to the left front speaker. Remove jumpers of course. would this "double" the wattage to each speaker or am i mistaken in the way that this could be done?

Was thinking of running this wire: http://www.monoprice.com/Product/?c_id=102&cp_id=10239&cs_id=1023903&p_id=4041&seq=1&format=2&res=3

Thoughts?

falconcry72

shawn474 wrote: »

My thought was to run channel 1 of amp to the bottom speaker terminals and channel 2 to the top speaker terminals on the right front speaker. Then do the same with channels 3 and 4 to the left front speaker. Remove jumpers of course. would this "double" the wattage to each speaker or am i mistaken in the way that this could be done?

Was thinking of running this wire: http://www.monoprice.com/Product/?c_id=102&cp_id=10239&cs_id=1023903&p_id=4041&seq=1&format=2&res=3

Thoughts?

yea, your way is the same as my way, we just worded it differently. That speaker cable will work fine.

PSOVLSK

I just hooked my NAD up this way on Monday (thus my clarification on the Y adapter). I don't know about doubling the wattage or any of that, but I know it sounds better than just my Pio SC-05. Is it any better than if I'd have just hooked up a single channel from the amp? Don't know, didn't try it that way.