Bi-amping

Sorry for adding more. 

What's interesting also is the impedance rise in the treble, along with a drop in response in the top octave. This is a speaker which might actually cry out for a tube amplifier to bring out the most output in that top octave.

This combination is not uncommon, especially for speakers of the era. 

A solid state amplifier would ignore the impedance rise, and present the top octaves as JA measured. 


Best,

E

Hi CT,

Just looked at the Stereophile measurements. I have to say, those were among the best B&W made, at least based on that!

https://www.stereophile.com/content/bw-matrix-801-series-2-loudspeaker-measurements

I would disagree, but just a little, about them with tubes. While the impedance barely drops below 6 Ohms, the rise to over 20 Ohms at about 2 kHz (text says 15, chart says more) could cause a little trouble. I would be tempted to add an impedance correction circuit to see how it behaves.

Best,

E

Depends on a lot of things, how difficult your speakers are, where they are difficult, and how solid the power supply of the amplifier driving it is.

There's one major benefit to using bi-amping however, and that is the ability to use a DSP eq on just the bass section. This allows you to get most of the benefits of a dedicated/room corrected subwoofer, without having extra hardware between your speaker and DAC for the mid-treble regions.

Best,


E