Bi-amping change

Early B.

I had my 70's bi-amped -- lows to a a HK PA2000 amp and highs to the HK 525 receiver. I bought some jumpers and decided to run a single set of speaker cables to the amp, thus powering both the highs and lows with the amp. For 2-channel playback, I noticed a smoother sound with slightly more detail. No loss in richness of the bass at all. I also noticed that I had to turn the volume up a couple of clicks to achieve the same levels. Nevertheless, IMO it sounds better to have both the highs and lows coming from the same amp. It seemed there was no value in bi-amping it the original way I had it.

PolkWannabie

Early,

No real surprise here ... Amps usually have better quality amplification than receivers. Additionally without a high pass filter most of the power going to the highs would be wasted and coming from a receiver it would not really be a possibility to use a high pass filter.

Early B.

The reason I did it is because several folks on the forum recommended it. Although many of the suggestions here are very good, you have to experiment and find out what works best for you. However, the idea to get a separate amp for the fronts came from this group, and that was a fantastic suggestion. It was one of the best upgrades I've made.

PolkWannabie

Regarding the amp and experimentation ... I completely agree ...

This hobby is about continually upgrading the weakest link and getting the best bang for your buck as it were ... Once you bring in the amp to power the lows of the mains then the weakest link is the receiver powering the highs of the mains and in the case of the 70's the amp in question is probably better to do the job with the highs than the receiver.

kingtut

Early B, try to bi-wire the RTi70 using the amp only. I tried both connections, using one single wire w/the jumper and bi-wiring w/the amp only. I like the bi-wiring w/a single amp a little better, just my personal preference.:)

PolkWannabie

The flat jumpers or something better ?

What were you using for single wire prior to biwiring. What did you use for biwiring ?

kingtut

For single wiring, I used the flat gold jumpers that came w/the RTi70. I used monster cable w/the gold banana plugs from R/S for both single and bi-wiring. I also tried bi-amping w/the H/K 525 driving the mid and high and the Audiossource Amp3 driving the low. The mid and high were muddy w/the bi-amping.

PolkWannabie

What Monster cable ? 16 awg ?

You might want to try a single run of thicker wire and make your own jumpers out of the same wire.

Early B.

I purchased some jumpers off audiogon (Mathura Audio) for about $24. Don't know if they work any better than the ones that came with the 70's, but it helps with peace of mind. Pretty neat looking, too.

I tried bi-wiring, but I didn't hear any difference.

BTW, I just listened to T2 to test my system with the highs and lows both going to the amp. Sounds great. Similar to music, I noticed an improvement in SQ, for instance when Arnold is revving the engine on a motorcycle, it sounded very real.

kingtut

14 gauge, I believe they are XP.

PolkWannabie

Although not the best speaker cable in the world it's hardly the worst either ... I suspect the weak point in your single wire set up was the flat metal jumpers.