RTA 11T Crossover Modification for Biamping
tcavallo
Posts: 2
Long time lurker, first time poster.
The background:
My dad had a pair of Monitor 10A's he bought new that I grew up listening to. I took them to college with me and totally fell in love with the sound paired w/ a British power amp (Arcam Alpha 8R). When my dad asked for them back after I graduated, I immediately bought my own pair that were kind of beat up. When they wouldn't fit into my new apartment, I did some research and found that the RTA 11T's had the same driver complement and 2 smaller passive radiators in a narrower package and got a pair. They've treated me well for 5 years, and I just upgraded the tweeters to the RD-0194 and they're sounding even better. I'm about to do the crossover upgrade, and here's where my question comes in.
I still love the sound of my Arcam driving these guys, but I'm interested in the biamping possibilities Arcam offers by way of adding an Alpha 8P or 9P power amp to the integrated amp. This is a vertical passive biamp, where the integrated and the power amp are both sending full frequency signals, integrated to HF L and R and the power amp to LF L and R.
I want to know how feasible it is to split the inputs to the HF and LF crossover networks on the crossover circuit while i'm doing the upgrade, and strap them to 2 sets of new binding posts. Here are my concerns:
-Impedance - The speakers rate 6 ohms themselves, and I believe the 6503 are 8 ohms each and the RD-0194 is 6 or 8. if the 6503s are run in parallel that's an 8 ohm load, so HF and LF amps will be seeing about the same load, so this should be fine right?
-Levels - The 8P is matched to the 8R, and I believe the 9P has adjustable output, so I should be ok here unless the impedance isn't right.
-Reversibility - As long as I have the ability to strap the two inputs together, I should still be able to use them with a single amp without having to re-mod them, right?
Any help would be much appreciated. Has anyone tackled this before with these or any other older Polks? Can't seem to find info here on the board, though I've seen a ton of bickering about biamping in general.
The background:
My dad had a pair of Monitor 10A's he bought new that I grew up listening to. I took them to college with me and totally fell in love with the sound paired w/ a British power amp (Arcam Alpha 8R). When my dad asked for them back after I graduated, I immediately bought my own pair that were kind of beat up. When they wouldn't fit into my new apartment, I did some research and found that the RTA 11T's had the same driver complement and 2 smaller passive radiators in a narrower package and got a pair. They've treated me well for 5 years, and I just upgraded the tweeters to the RD-0194 and they're sounding even better. I'm about to do the crossover upgrade, and here's where my question comes in.
I still love the sound of my Arcam driving these guys, but I'm interested in the biamping possibilities Arcam offers by way of adding an Alpha 8P or 9P power amp to the integrated amp. This is a vertical passive biamp, where the integrated and the power amp are both sending full frequency signals, integrated to HF L and R and the power amp to LF L and R.
I want to know how feasible it is to split the inputs to the HF and LF crossover networks on the crossover circuit while i'm doing the upgrade, and strap them to 2 sets of new binding posts. Here are my concerns:
-Impedance - The speakers rate 6 ohms themselves, and I believe the 6503 are 8 ohms each and the RD-0194 is 6 or 8. if the 6503s are run in parallel that's an 8 ohm load, so HF and LF amps will be seeing about the same load, so this should be fine right?
-Levels - The 8P is matched to the 8R, and I believe the 9P has adjustable output, so I should be ok here unless the impedance isn't right.
-Reversibility - As long as I have the ability to strap the two inputs together, I should still be able to use them with a single amp without having to re-mod them, right?
Any help would be much appreciated. Has anyone tackled this before with these or any other older Polks? Can't seem to find info here on the board, though I've seen a ton of bickering about biamping in general.
Post edited by tcavallo on
Comments
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Speakers that can be bi-wired already do all of this.
You literally build one crossover for the tweeter and another for the woofer. Normally you would strap them internally to make a 2 way speaker, but you don't have to.
The impedance of the tweeter can be raised with resistors(L-pad) if you feel bad about it, but it's not necessary. Each amp volume can be adjusted independently, doing away with impedance woes. Assuming your amp won't blow, it's fine.
I won't go into detail, but your ideas are already spot on.
p.s. It is totally reversible, since you're strapping for mono wiring and already have the two sets of posts for bi-wiring.
