Is bi amping worth it ?

@wbs

I'm having trouble wrapping my head around that. In stereo, wouldn't this mean that I have one channel driving the bass and the other channel driving the mids/highs? Isn't this kind of defeating "stereo"?

Interesting thought about the length of cable. I know that electrons flow at the speed of light (at least I think they do) so maybe it would be impossible to actually "hear" a difference in minimal length differences. I was more thinking of there being ever so slight differences in the resistance which maybe could affect it in some miniscule way. With all these tweaks, we start splitting hairs and claims of perceived differences become a source of much speculation some outrageous discussion. As long as I like it more than before is really all that matters to me and I do read a lot here for the opinions of the fine folks here who have a helluva lot more money tied up in a system than I could ever hope to have. 

@billpete 

I’m having trouble wrapping my head around that. In stereo, wouldn’t this mean that I have one channel driving the bass and the other channel driving the mids/highs? Isn’t this kind of defeating "stereo"?

No.  "Stereo" is in the source, then gets split to be amplified by right and left channels.  You still have distinct left and right channels in the system.   It might be easier to think of them as two separate 2 channel amps rather than two stereo amps.  

Knotscott said it pretty well.  A stereo amplifier is two one-channel amplifiers in one chassis which happen to share one power supply (usually).  There is an input and an output for each channel.  Really not different than setting two monoblocks next to each other.

The stereo part comes from the left and right outputs from your preamp.  If you use two sets of outputs from the preamp you have two lefts and two rights and as long as you don't mix them up they are still stereo.

Bill 

@hardhattg,

My advice: sell the MC 601’s and buy the MC451 1-Channel Dual Mono Amplifier.

That said, passive or active bi-amping should not be undertaken without first asking the speaker manufacturer’s advice. Hope that helps. 😎

@erik_squires +10

Mike

Passive bi-amping is fine to try if your speakers have two sets of binding posts, one for high frequencies and one for low frequencies, as long as the two sets of posts are completely isolated electrically from each other.

There have been speakers (and may still be) that share grounding between the two sets of posts and shouldn't be passively bi-amped.

This can be easily determined with an ohmmeter.

As far as active bi-amping is concerned, the internal crossover needs to be bypassed entirely and the speaker must be modified to that effect.

I cannot imagine any speaker manufacturer would happily recommend advising to do that.

Bill