Horizontal vs Vertical Bi-amping for Stereo and Ht

Pinktulip7

I understand logic of Horizontal vs Vertical Bi-amping but is it good for Ht setup?or only for Stereo?Personally Vertical Bi-Amping make no sense on Home
Theater Setup!!!!prove me if I am wrong?

Systems

Pinktulip7 wrote: »

I understand logic of Horizontal vs Vertical Bi-amping but is it good for Ht setup?or only for Stereo?Personally Vertical Bi-Amping make no sense on Home
Theater Setup!!!!prove me if I am wrong?

If you mean passive biamping (as in using the integral passive crossover) then IMO you will gain a few extra db of power headroom but not much else.If the amps are low power units this may be useful.
Keep in mind that with passive bi amping the gain's of the amps must be exactly the same or the frequency balance of the speaker will not be as designed.

I believe an actively biamped system has some important advantages over one that is passively biamped.

As for a horizontal vs vertical arangement ,assuming both amps are the same I don't think there would be much of a difference between the two methods.

Pinktulip7

No active Bi-Amping...is Vertical or Horizontal Bi-Amping make any difference in Home Theater?

Systems

Pinktulip7 wrote: »

No active Bi-Amping..

OK so the passive crossover will be bypassed?

Vertical or Horizontal Bi-Amping make any difference in Home Theater?

"Active" biamping be it vertical or horizontal will IMO have advantages in both HT and 2 ch setups.This assuming ofcourse that the outboard active crossover has been designed for the speaker it's being used with.

organ

I doubt you'll hear much of a difference if the speakers power requirements are already met with your existing amp. Don't forget that by doubling the power, you only increase spl by 3db.

BlueFox

Pinktulip7 wrote: »

I understand logic of Horizontal vs Vertical Bi-amping but is it good for Ht setup?or only for Stereo?Personally Vertical Bi-Amping make no sense on Home Theater Setup!!!!prove me if I am wrong?

At the risk of, once again, showing my ignorance, I have to admit this is the first time I have seen, or at least remember, the term “horizontal versus vertical bi-amping”. When I read this my thought was, “Is this something else I am going to have to spend money on.”

I enjoy coming across new, at least to me, terms for existing ideas. This reminds me of when I first heard “synergy”, “paradigm” or “legacy” in the computer network world. My first thought was, “What are they talking about.”, and then, after learning the meaning, I realized it is just a different word for something else.

On the other hand, I understand the benefit of having a unique name for the various methods to attach a speaker to an amplifier.

Thanks to Wiki for a fast, inexpensive explanation. Hopefully, it is semi-accurate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bi-amping

amulford

that's fairly accurate

Pinktulip7

I did spent lots of time experimenting Vertical and Horizontal Bi-Amping and I came to the conclusion that I like the Sound of Horizontal Bi-Amping...much more depth in Bass and clear (Sweet)details in Mid and High......I would say 10% sound improvement over my previous setup, playing very low(-54)on my HK 7300

potee

I know I asked the question, the answer is a little over my head. I did read the wiki article and over time I think I'll get. Thanks for knowledge

Serendipity

Is this basically driving speakers with two different configurations?

1. Using one amp for the left speaker and one amp for the right speaker
2. Using half of each amp for each speaker, i.e. the lows being powered by one channel and the highs being powered by a different channel?

I would think using one amp for each speaker would be a better way of bi-amping, because if you were using the method in # 2 and the gain controls of the amps were set slightly different, the tonality of the speakers would be off.

Using the method in # 1 ensures that one amp drives both the highs and lows of the same speaker.

Serendipity

Also, if using one amp for the highs and the other for lows, wouldn't the amp for the low frequencies get strained more / used more heavily / use more power?

TECHNOKID

appadv wrote: »

Also, if using one amp for the highs and the other for lows, wouldn't the amp for the low frequencies get strained more / used more heavily / use more power?

Yes, you are correct thus the advantage of vertical over horizontal. Check the above provided wiki:

Vertical bi-amping has the advantage of not having to use a single amp to power both bass sections, which can be very taxing on the amplifier, especially at higher volume or if the bass driver has a particularly low impedance at certain frequencies.

Systems

appadv wrote: »

I would think using one amp for each speaker would be a better way of bi-amping, because if you were using the method in # 2 and the gain controls of the amps were set slightly different, the tonality of the speakers would be off.

As I pointed out in post#2 ,when passive biamping the gains of the amps must be identical so as to not cause a frequency imbalance.Aswell both amps would need to be identical to vertically biamp.

appadv wrote: »

Also, if using one amp for the highs and the other for lows, wouldn't the amp for the low frequencies get strained more / used more heavily / use more power?

Maybe in theory,but in practice it would depend on the actual design of the amp and the difficulty of the load presented to the amp by the speaker.IMO if two identical ,reasonably powered amps were used on a relatively easy to drive speaker ,then there would be negligable differences between the vertical and horizontal arrangements.

Systems

I should clarify my statement.

GV#27 wrote: »

Yes the woofer sections will require a lot more power than will the tweeter sections,maybe in theory this gives vertical biamping the advantage but in practice it would depend on the actual design of the amp and the difficulty of the load presented to the amp by the speaker.IMO if two identical ,reasonably powered amps were used on a relatively easy to drive speaker ,then there would be negligable differences between the vertical and horizontal arrangements.

wutadumsn23

Wow, there is a lot of gray matter floating around in here, lol. Very informative thread and Wiki article though, I like potee will understand it after I read it a few times, lol.

Music Joe

Could be Horizontal passive Bi-amping would be an advantage in the case of the many bass bin + monitor or multi [double-triple] bass unit floorstanders that are common these days.

Stereophile review noted the Klipsch P39 triple bass driver low end had more drive difficulty than the efficient horn top end which yielded a bass shy sound. Maybe a recipe of SS/Tube magic, SS/SS or a chip-amp/ampzilla on speakers such as these.