Bi-amping a 2.5 way speaker

[Macca]

Just wondering if this would be worth it with my Celstion A2s? Like Clarkson i feel the need for more power and as it is easy to bi-amp with Linn Lk100s (you just daisy chain them together) seems like this would be a simple and low cost (£200) option -

But - would it mean one power amp would just be driving the HF? In which case it seems a bit of a waste - How are the crossovers split in a 2.5 way?

[The Grand Wazoo]

Bi-amping won't give you more power Martin.

[Macca]

Bi-amping won't give you more power Martin.

But it gives each amp less work to do, which amounts to the same thing - or doesn't it?

[realysm42]

Isn't the benfit of this not more power, but the (same) workload distributed amongst more resources, resulting in better sound?

[The Grand Wazoo]

The speakers will draw the power they require for the gain setting you ask them to deliver. Is more unused power the same as more power? I don't know, maybe it is!

[The Grand Wazoo]

I'm not trying to dissuade you from bi-amping - far from it, I've been doing it (and tri-amping) for yonks.
I'm not sure how the crossover of your speakers is configured, but I never felt like I was wasting the potential of an amp when just using it to drive high frequencies.

[Macca]

Okay forget the power aspect - will having a second power amp just driving the tweeters (as I suspect that is how it will split) give me any improvement in SQ - in theory that is?

[Macca]

I'm not trying to dissuade you from bi-amping - far from it, I've been doing it (and tri-amping) for yonks.
I'm not sure how the crossover of your speakers is configured, but I never felt like I was wasting the potential of an amp when just using it to drive high frequencies.

Crossed posts :) So it may well be a worthwhile idea then. I need to make my mind up as the amps won't be on sale long at the price.

[Reid Malenfant]

It could be worth doing :) If I was you though Martin I'd consider going semi active as you can pick up a decent Behringer crossover quite cheap secondhand. You'd only need something like the CX2310 which will do stereo two way.

That way you'll then use the amps to greater effect.

In a 2.5 way speaker there will no doubt be two bass/mids & one of them is rolled off so that only one bass/mid tends to be working above approximately 300Hz or so & with both working below this.

[Macca]

It could be worth doing :) If I was you though Martin I'd consider going semi active as you can pick up a decent Behringer crossover quite cheap secondhand. You'd only need something like the CX2310 which will do stereo two way.

That way you'll then use the amps to greater effect.

In a 2.5 way speaker there will no doubt be two bass/mids & one of them is rolled off so that only one bass/mid tends to be working above approximately 300Hz or so & with both working below this.

Going active would mean modding the speaker and I am not keen to do that with my Celstions (either the A2 or the Ditton 44) as they are both sets are near mint. I do plan to construct an active system alongside the existing one but that is a seperate project :eyebrows:

I have read that bi-amping a 2 way is a bit of a waste of time as the HF is such an easy load removing it is not going to give the amp doing the mid/bass any easier a time of it, although Chris (GW) seems to disagree. The A2 is as you say with the top driver running the full range up to where it crosses with the tweeter and as you say the bottom driver running up to 300hz or so to augment bass.

Unless anyone has any other opinions to contribute I think I might kick this into touch and concentrate funds on the active project. It was just seeing the LK100s at such a good price on ebay got me thinking.

[Reid Malenfant]

Bi Amping wouldn't give you much in the way of gains that I could think of in all honesty. Both amps will still be dealing with all frequencies even if the load on them isn't quite the same.

It's not something I have ever tried as I always make the bigger leap to a fully active system which does have lots of advantages :)

[Macca]

Thanks Mark - if you don't mind would you answer some other questions re fully active?

I'm toying with the idea of twin powered subs for bass with mid and top handled by some Studio Spares Classic SN10(8'' mid/bass, sealed cabs) with crossover removed ( I'm confident I can do the mod myself)

Amps would be Linn LK100 for mid range and a Behringer A500 for the top fed through a Behringer DCX2496 (although I could use 2 Behringer amps instead if that is better) then have fun playing with all the settings. I would need to buy the subs and the crossover, I have the rest of the stuff already. Whadya think?

[Reid Malenfant]

I'd use the Behringer for bass/mid & the LK100 for treble...

The LK 100 will be a higher quality bit of kit so there would be less chance of it showing up nasties in the treble (crossover distortion) than the Behringer, which should be fine for bass/mid imo... The Behringer is also more powerful & you need more power in the bass/mid than the treble ;)

The DCX would or could give you three way crossover so you'd be able to feed subs, bass/mid & tweeter from the same crossover & get all the delays set up to integrate the whole lot properly.

[Macca]

I was thinking the midrange would be the most vulnerable to showing up distortion hence using the Linn there. It is 50w into 8 Ohms 90w into 4 ohms so not weak-kneed by any measure. But if overall that idea gets the thumbs up I will start looking for the crossover unit (on the cheap of course) - cheers Mark.