Bi-amping for better quality

[mauibuilt59]

I heard bi-amping your components makes a huge difference. How do I go about Bi-amping my components, and what do I need? I am ordering a set of Focal polyglass components and would like to bi-amp it. Could someone please help me out in this process?

Thanks

[cam2Xrunner]

http://forum.elitecaraudio.com/searc...aily=&pagenum=

If that link doesn't work then just go to www.elitecaraudio.com and search bi-amping. I'm still learning about it too. Hopefully edde will jump in on this and shed more light on the subject. But basically you run each driver on it's own channel. Like if you have a 4 channel amp you will have one channel for each tweeter and one for each mid. You can also use two amps, one for each driver. Like one two channel amp for the mids and another two channel amp for the highs. I'm still very new to that stuff myself, but i hear there is alot more tuning involved.

[mauibuilt59]

Yeah, something like that, but I dont think you can use the stock crossover. I'm thinking that you need to buy a separate crossover so that you can isolate the power to the mids and highs. The stock crossover only has one input...so thats the part where I'm confused.

[eddiem67]

Some crossover will allow you to biwire the componet set. If not, then yes you would have to buy an additional set of crossovers or go active if your HU or amps have built in crossover that have by pass capabilities. Bi-amping your components, give you a cleaner signal (set is not sharing power) and more conrol of tuning capabilities.

[mauibuilt59]

so exactly what would I need if i wanted to bi-amp components if the stock crossovers did not have bi-wiring capabilities? pictures or links would help.

Thanks

[Stealth]

just regular old speaker wire. wire each tweeter or mid like its an individual speaker

[rawdawg]

You would also need a way to isolate the frequencies to a range suited for each speaker(think crossover).

In a month or so, I will be bi-amping my set-up. At the moment, I have a Crossfire VR404 running 50x2 to the front channels and 200x2 bridged to the rear mono channel. My front channel consists of (2)USD Waveguides and (2)Kicker RMB8's with a USD passive crossover. Each Waveguide/RMB8 combo is seeing 50 watts. Since the Waveguide is 8 ohms and the RMB8 is 4 ohms, the Waveguide sees about 15 watts and the RMB8 sees about 35 watts. In reality, there is some power loss with using the passives. The correct frequencies are directed by the passive crossover.

If I were to bi-amp using the VR404, I would be running it 50x 4. Both wave guides and RMB8's would be on its own separate channel. The Waveguides being 8 ohms, would see about 25 watts. The RMB8's would see all 50 watts. I would need an active crossover, either as a stand alone unit or some combination of whatever the head unit/amp had to offer. If I did not use a crossover, the Waveguides would be playing fullrange and I would be out some serious money in a matter of time.

The advantage to bi-amping is more power and flexibility in tuning the response.

In the above bi-amp mode, I would also have to buy another amp to power my subwoofer.

Did I make any sense?

[mauibuilt59]

ok...so would I have to buy one crossover (with RCA inputs)? or 4 inline crossovers (with speaker wire inputs)? Also, where could I find a crossover that crosses over at 2500 hz?

And also, isnt some stock crossovers tuned to compensate for certain frequencies played by the speakers? for example, if the mid-range driver normally produces lower volumes of a certain frequency, the crossover will boost the signal at that certain frequency?

[mauibuilt59]

and technically, the best and cheapest thing to do if you are bi-amping is to buy what you consider the best tweeter and the best woofer individually (as long as the frequency responses of the two overlap).... it was just a thought that came to mind...

[rawdawg]

The cleanest, simplest and most direct way is to get an active crossover, one that will allow you to handle all your speakers. Active crossovers are variable, in that, you can choose your crossover point with the units given range. You will also need a amp channel for each speaker. You will have a high pass left/right, a low pass left/right and, I assume, a sub channel.

Some suggestions:

1) Get a 4 channel amp for your components that has a built in crossover. You will also need an amp for your subwoofer that has a crossover that goes low enough. I'm guessing most modern ones do. You may notice there is no low pass for the midrange/midbass in this set-up. Most people I know allow their midbass/woofer to roll off naturally.

2) Get a 5 channel amp that has a high pass/lowpass/sub crossover built into it. Clean, uncluttered and less messy wiring.

3) Get an active crossover/30 band EQ with a separate mono amp for each speaker. This would be the ultimate in flexibility, tuning capability, dynamic headroom, etc...

Yes, some stock crossovers have a compensation network built into them to tame the response of the drivers. I would say most stock crossovers are tuned to give GOOD sound in a manufacturers recommended installation. Unless you know what you're doing or you just want to get your feet wet tinkering in the car audio realm, the supplied crossover that comes with a component set is generally the best answer. Some people want to fret over slopes, delays and pathlengths while others just want to hear good music.

I know a lot of people who mix and match their speakers. It is the cause of endless debate on the car audio forums. It is both entertaining and frightening...

[dna59]

I gotta read up on this subject. Sounds interesting, something I'm hearing of for the first.