Anyone bi-amp the Emotiva LPA-1?

dbaldus · December 2007

I just purchased an Emotiva LPA-1 to use with my HK 247 and it should be here by the end of the week. I think that I'm probably going to have some unused terminals on the amp (depending whether or not I hook up my weaker surround sound speakers (R15's) to the amp or to my HK) so I was considering bi-amping my mains (RTi70s) and possibly my center (CSi40) as well. I have read on the Emotiva lounge that it is possible to do this, but I was just wondering what happens when I do that exactly.

1. If I split the signal at the pre-out and then run 2 separate RCAs to two input terminals on the amp, then run a set of cables to the speaker from each of those terminals, am I effectively getting 2 x 125 = 250 watts to the speaker?

2. Also, when I do that, is there any setting that I need to change on my receiver to only send low frequencies to one terminal and high frequencies to another? I know I need to remove the jumper on my speaker terminals, but other than that, are there any other sort of settings to make sure I take care of?

3. Has anyone done this on the LPA-1? I'm going to ask the same question on the Emotiva Lounge (their forum), but there isn't much activity over there so I thought it would get answered more quickly over here.

4. What has been people's experience with bi-amping in general? Is the difference noticeable? What is the difference as opposed to using one amp? Should I do it with both the mains and the center, or just the mains, or just the center, or what would make the biggest difference?

Thanks in advance...

Early B. · December 2007

Forget about it. Not worth the trouble.

Besides, you'll only be able to bi-amp two speakers on the LPA-1 @ 250 wpc/speaker.

dbaldus · December 2007

Why do you say it is not worth the trouble?

I understand why people say its not worth the trouble when you would have to buy another amp or something like that (when you could instead just buy a single, higher powered amp), but considering I will probably have 2 spare channels on the LPA-1, why not?

I'm assuming that by your response, the answer to my question about giving the speakers 2 channels of 125w is really like giving it 250w is a "yes", so why wouldn't giving the speakers 250w instead of 125w be better?

Just seems to me like I'm going to have spare terminals on the LPA-1, so why not use them? Just curious to hear your reasoning...

WilliamM2 · December 2007

It's not really like giving each speaker 250 watts. When the woofer is drawing a lot of power, say 100 watts, the tweeter will only be drawing 5 - 10 watts. With an actual 250 watt per channel amp, the power will all be used, as it can go where it's needed.

I am currently bi-amping my center channel with 150x2. Why not, doesn't cost anything. But to be honest, I did not notice any difference, if fact, I did not even have to re-calibrate the center, it still had the same output as 150x1.

Give it a try and see what you think.

polktiger · December 2007

When I have toyed with bi-amping in the past, I have always removed the jumper. But as has been pointed out, your woofer frequently draws much more power than your tweeter. So, I wondered, what happens if you leave the jumper on.

Now, first thought, if it is 2 separate amps you likely ground them together and kill the amps. But what if you are running an older 4 channel amp or a seven channel amp and you only have a 5.1 set up. In this case, it is all coming off the same amp which can be tested for having a common ground. If it passes, could you then use the same amp to bi-amp? If so, would you even want to since there is likely only one power supply in the amp anyway.

I have an old 4 channel carver that I though about doing this with. I also wondered about these Emotivas. Could you get a worthwhile 250 wpc via bi-amping with the jumpers left on. (Sort of like bridging an amp without the added distortion)

BjornB17 · August 2008

I know this is an old thread....

but I might get an LPA-1 to use on my system in my sig (with the exception of AVR-130 , i will be using AVR-340).

Could i use the 50 W channels on the LPA to drive the tweeters in the Monitor 70s while using the high-power channels to drive the woofers? Will this create a volume inbalance? As stated earlier, the tweeter draws much less power so 50W ought to be enough, right?

Early B. · August 2008

BjornB17 wrote: »

I know this is an old thread....

but I might get an LPA-1 to use on my system in my sig (with the exception of AVR-130 , i will be using AVR-340).

Could i use the 50 W channels on the LPA to drive the tweeters in the Monitor 70s while using the high-power channels to drive the woofers? Will this create a volume inbalance? As stated earlier, the tweeter draws much less power so 50W ought to be enough, right?

Should work fine. No problem. Give it a try.

Anyone bi-amp the Emotiva LPA-1?

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