I bet a listening test is in order here. When I bought my Silverine Preludes I called the company because I thought I might need a woofer (false alarm)...Alan Yun (the Silverline designer/honcho) told me the Preludes sounded more coherent (his words) single wired. He was right...this might not apply to bi-amping, but it's such a great story I can't help telling it whenever possible.
Does Passive Bi amping reduces IMD InterModulation
I have heard a lot of experts say that the Passive bi amping does not reduce the IMD or intermodulation distortion.
Here is the reason why i think it reduces IMD
In transistor we have a small current at base controlling a large non linear current at output. Assume we have 2 full range channels fed into speaker with crossover HF/LF
So although both amps are amplifying full bandwidth, the output the HF side will ignore the low freq(due to cap reactance), as a result reducing the current at o/p stage of transistor and thus using a narrower region of the non linear curve and reducing the IMD. same for bass. Refer to the image link below for details.
http://postimg.org/image/95cwqkait/
[img]http://s2.postimg.org/95cwqkait/Passive_bi_Amp.jpg[/img]
It seems passive bi amping reduces IMD by increasing the headroom.
I wonder if the same effect could have been achieved by using more powerful amplifier?
Any thoughts by anyone ?
BTW i just bi amped by B&W 685 with a yamaha 573 7.1 receiver and canare 4s11 Blue jean bananas, it sounds better to me than using a single channel of amp per speaker.
Here is the reason why i think it reduces IMD
In transistor we have a small current at base controlling a large non linear current at output. Assume we have 2 full range channels fed into speaker with crossover HF/LF
So although both amps are amplifying full bandwidth, the output the HF side will ignore the low freq(due to cap reactance), as a result reducing the current at o/p stage of transistor and thus using a narrower region of the non linear curve and reducing the IMD. same for bass. Refer to the image link below for details.
http://postimg.org/image/95cwqkait/
[img]http://s2.postimg.org/95cwqkait/Passive_bi_Amp.jpg[/img]
It seems passive bi amping reduces IMD by increasing the headroom.
I wonder if the same effect could have been achieved by using more powerful amplifier?
Any thoughts by anyone ?
BTW i just bi amped by B&W 685 with a yamaha 573 7.1 receiver and canare 4s11 Blue jean bananas, it sounds better to me than using a single channel of amp per speaker.