my question on bi-amping

bamamusicfan

Here's what I have and I'm wondering if I can bi-amp? Would it be worth the effort and/or what benefits can I expect from it?

I have an Onyko THX receiver with preouts for connections to external amps. This receiver is rated at 110 watts per channel.

I have a brand new ATI amp rated at 250 watts per channel. It is a five channel amp.

I have a new pair of RTi150's. I also have a HSU sub that I'm running through the sub pre-out on the Onkyo.

Can I bi-amp effectively and how should I proceed in doing this?

Thanks for any help!

Bryan Miller
Athens, Alabama

AsSiMiLaTeD

I think you'll be fine with just the receiver...you should go ahead and just give that ATI amp to me

Anyway, yeah, I'd use the ATI to bi-amp the 150s. I'd keep the Onkyo powering the mids and highs on the 150s and the ATI powering the lows, for two reasons:

1 - That ATI has more power per chanel and those subs on the 150s need lots more juice than the mids and highs
2 - You really want all your mids and highs (or at least the highs) running off the same amp or receiver, that way any characteristics that source has will be the same across all speakers. You don't want a warm sounding amp powering your fronts and a more bright sounding amp doing center channel duty, you want the same type of sound across the entire system. With the lows this doesn't matter, that's why I suggest the ATI for the lows.

So I'd use the Onkyo to power the highs and mids on the fronts and to drive all the other speakers as well, and use the ATI to just pull SW duty on the 150s.

You could also just use the ATI for all your speakers, but that may be overkill, and then you likely wouldn't bi-amp the 150s becuase it wouldn't make much sense to only throw 110 WPC from the Onk on the lows...

Hope that helps...

bamamusicfan

Thanks Polkmaniac for responding.

This ATI amp is a beast. 118lbs and it's every bit of it. I had to reinforce the shelving that it's sitting on. Still I'm wondering if I'll come home one day with my equipment all scattered.

I'm new to bi-amping, so bare with me please!

The post of the back on the 150's are as I assume, represented by the top pair corresponding to the highs/mids and the bottom pair of post, the low/bass. Is this correct?

Thanks!

Bryan Miller
Athens, Alabama

AsSiMiLaTeD

Originally posted by bamamusicfan

The post of the back on the 150's are as I assume, represented by the top pair corresponding to the highs/mids and the bottom pair of post, the low/bass. Is this correct?

Yep.

You'd run cables from the preamp outs on the receiver to two of the channels on the ATI and then run speaker wire from those channels on the AIT to the lower set of posts on the 150s, all while still running speaker wire out of the Onk to the upper set of posts...

PolkWannabie

There are several ways to biamp with or without using the Onkyo speaker outputs ...

But in any case remember to REMOVE THE JUMPERS between the upper and lower binding posts on the speakers.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Originally posted by PolkWannabie
There are several ways to biamp with or without using the Onkyo speaker outputs ...

But in any case remember to REMOVE THE JUMPERS between the upper and lower binding posts on the speakers.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention removing the jumper...thannks PW...

As for other ways to bi-amp, true there are others, I was just mentioning what I've found to provide the most benefit given that setup...