Is bi amping worth it ?

Hello hardhattg !  Bi amping is worth it if you add an electronic crossover to your system along with the extra power amp. An electronic crossover lets you get a 24 db/octive (very steep) crossover that keeps the tweeter and the woofer from unwanted overlaping each other AND lets you get rid of the (generally low quality) crossovers in the speaker cabinets. It will connect after the preamp and feed the power amps. If you choose a DBX 223, you get to play with the levels and crossover points. Great Fun!  There are different models with different connectors. be sure to get the type you need.

So, open up the speaker cabinets, remove the existing passive crossover parts. Connect the woofer directly to the old terminals (if they have magnetic parts, replace with (at least) brass terminals. Connect the tweeter wires to a new pair of non-ferrous terminals. (If you experiment a lot, add a 20 mfd or larger  high quality capacitor in series with the tweeter to keep the buzz out if you happen to make any sort of mistake when the power amps are on.)  Your power amps now connect directly to the speakers, allowing their damping factor to influence the drivers, vastly increasing their ability to control distortion. The difference will delight you. (High quality cables will really show up now.) Enjoy the music.

@hardhattg 

I am a firm believer in bi-amping speakers that are designed for it. My speakers are old and not efficient, requiring quite a lot of power. I use AR9 speakers which are rated for 400 watts of power. I'm not sure how this changes if you biamp but mine are bi-amped with 2 stereo amps rated at 385 wpc @ 4ohms. I'm not really even sure if the AR rating of 400W is at 4 or 8 ohm. The speakers are rated at 4ohms with FR of 18hz to 30khz. 

When I started with these speakers, I only had one of these amps and the bi-amp feature of the speakers was using jumpers for one amplifier. It would seem that having 385wpc, should have been plenty to produce good solid bass from these speakers but I did not hear what I was looking for at all. They sounded nice but bass was not full or strong or snappy or whatever words can be used to describe really good bass. So...........I bought another identical amp and bi-amped the speakers. The difference was night and day. The bass from these old AR9's is very impressive. I have been enjoying them this way for 25 years or so. I would never take them back to a single amp.............never.

If your speakers are set up for bi-amping, I would do it in a heartbeat. There should be absolutely zero need for another crossover, which in my opinion, would just complicate things and make synergy much more difficult to find. I'm not sure how your speakers were designed but horns are much different than what I have so I can't say but listen to the experts here. Eric_Squires for one. For me, two amps that are exactly the same, has worked extremely well. Your horns may require or work well with something completely different, I do not know. I know there are some large speakers made with a large power class D amp to run the woofers and they suggest that the top end can be run with very low powered SET types. Would not work for mine but it's all in the design. Best of luck but I'd suggest trying bi-amping for sure. You can often try components for 30 day with satisfaction guaranteed. There is no risk and I think you'd be delighted with what you hear. It will give you the best that your speakers have to offer as they were made for this.

@erik_squires Oops, Sorry to screw up your name. 

Well , from all the comments so far certainly makes sense to try bi amping.  Doesn’t cost anything to try passive bi amping other than another set of speaker cables. Will try that first and see if any difference .  I have the mono blocks and the pre amp supports two main outs.    Have ordered some additional speaker cables and will try this first and report any difference with this first move , probably this weekend. 
 

thanks again for all comments and advice . Greatly appreciated.  

I’ve tried bi-amping briefly, and I can testify that the quality of the amps makes a difference. Amplifiers designed for Public Address (PA) speakers do not work well with the midrange/tweeter half of a B&W 801Matrix. Maybe if I had turned the volume down on the PA amp. Oh well. I do have a 4-way Pioneer crossover for my next attempt. I expect it will be an exciting adventure, as I expect your’s will be as well. I would anticipate a good deal of time may be spent on ‘dialing it in.’ Good luck.