Bi amping with Tube and Solid State

I suppose that "Gmorris" is pointing to my post with his 'It is incredible how people on this forum can make such sweeping, and incorrect generalizations without clarification.' statement!!!

However, it should be noted that "Gmorris" has done EXACTLY what I have written to achieve successful bi-amping namely using a good/excellent active xover!

The only doubtful thing I mentioned in my post was blending the tone of the ss & tube amps & "Gmorris" has a PARTICULAR solution that fits HIS needs. This is perfectly fine. It is also the reason that I did not recomend either 6dB/oct or 12db/oct etc slopes or xover frequencies 'cuz each system is different. What works for "Gmorris" might not work for "Kcw001".

It appears that my statements were not so "sweeping, and incorrect generalizations" after all!!

IFFFFF "Gmorris" has achieved successful (sound-wise) bi-amping WITHOUT active xovers, then I would have made "sweeping, and incorrect generalizations".

"Gmorris" can correct me if I'm wrong in saying that "Kcw001" would be wasting his time bi-amping WITHOUT an active xover.

Just my feedback. FWIW.

Thank you for all of you guys, very thankful for your inputs, I think I got a pretty good idea of what I am going to do. There is no need to argue here since we all look at thing from a different angle.

Bombaywalla:

I was not referring to you.

Gmorris,

Thanks for the clarification!
Sorry for assuming incorrectly.

You would like to use tubes on top to enjoy the lush, liquid sound. However, you also want the low end slam of SS. Passive bi-amping (some may call it "Fool's Bi-amping" does not have all the advantages of active bi-amping. However, in your case, a key advantage is obtained. Despite presenting full-signals at the input to both tube and SS amps, you will definitely reduce the load burden experienced by the tube amplifier. It will not "see" nearly as much of the speaker's low end load. This is where the majority of current and power are consumed. Therefore, your output tubes can run somewhat cooler and you will not drive your tube amp towards clipping as quickly at high volume.

One tweak that will help this configuration further is the addition of a High-pass filter to the tube amplifier's input. This can be nothing more than a capacitor soldered behind the input socket. The size of the cap is chosen according to the cut-off frequency you desire. Now the tube amp does not have to internally deal with the low end spectrum, thereby enhancing performance further. You have now reduced smearing and other harmonic distortion effects.

Active bi-amping not only requires an active cross-over feeding the independent amplifiers, it also requires a viable means of bi-passing your speaker's embedded x-over.