Do you think it is worth it?

jrlouie

Some other thread about bi-wiring and bi-amping got me thinking. I have this amp in a closet getting no use. It is a Crest Audio pro amp. The attached PDF file has its specs. Basically 325 watts/channel. For anyone not familiar with the 7500, here are its specs.
Do you think I would see an improvement on my Lsi15's if I were to bi-amp them using the Crest Audio on the lows and my Outlaw 7500 on the highs? I already have a matching extra set of reasonable speaker wire. Nothing extrememly fancy, but okay. So, I'd have the same cable going to the highs and lows. Do you foresee any possible negative aspects?
I was going to ask what people typically do to get the L/R channels from a pre-amp to 2 different amps when bi-amping (since I've had bad results in the past using y-adaptors) but I'd probably just use my XLR connections to the 7500 for the highs and the composite pre-outs on my 990 to the Crest Audio for the lows.
What do you think?

Or is this just one of those "who cares what we think, just try it" type of things.

Thanks for any feedback.

shack

jrlouie wrote:

Or is this just one of those "who cares what we think, just try it" type of things.

slush

I would say give it a shot

hoosier21

check around first, some equipment will not let you connect to both the balanced and unbalanced.

Page 17 of your manual say to not connect both.

slush

eeek

Kelley_Moore

Before trying, you may want to do some reading on the benefits, or lack thereof, of bi-amping without bypassing your speaker’s internal crossover.

I read few posts in HT spot that indicated minimal to no benefits without getting around the speakers internal crossover. I had this information backed by Steve at Outlaw Audio when purchasing my Amp.

But again, these are opinions so since you already own it, no harm in trying it. Let us know how it went.

Good Luck!

http://www.hometheaterspot.com/htsthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=UBB5&Number=778129&Searchpage=1&Main=777488&Words=bi-amping&topic=&Search=true#Post778129

jrlouie

I emailed Outlaw. Turns out that it doesn't hurt the 990 to use the composite and XLR connections at the same time. But the issue is that the XLR connections are 6 dB hotter. I'm not sure if the attenuators on my Crest Audio will allow for enough gain to equal things out. If I read the specs on the Crest Audio correctly, it appears its input sensitivity is greater than the Outlaw, so that might help.
I might try it out anyway.

jrlouie

Now here is something weird. Tonight I thought I'd see how it sounded. I hooked up a L/R from the preamp out to my Crest Audio leaving everything else the same and all my speakers hooked up as they were with the Outlaw 7500 amp and balanced inputs. Mind you, the Crest is not even plugged in to the wall. I have not yet ran a second set of speaker cables to the towers, removed jumpers or any of that stuff. The only thing I did was plug in the interconnect from the preamp outs to the Crest Audio. Suddenly, the volume is cut down to next to inaudible. If I unplug one of the channels from the Crest Audio, the volume jumps back up, plug it back in, and it drops out.
Weird. This almost makes me feel like the composite preamp outs and the XLR outs on the 990 are tied together somehow. Furthermore, if I unplug and then plug in the interconnect to the Crest, back and forth, it will make pops in the speaker which actually only has nothing but the original speaker cable and the original balance XLR's from the 990 to the 7500 amp (the Crest Audio amp has no speaker cables attached, nor is it even plugged in).

Obviously this won't work. But I have no clue why it is doing this.

jrlouie

Holy cow! I just figured it out.

My Crest Audio was flipped to bridged mode and I have no idea why. When I put it back, all seems well. Let's hope it stays that way