Is Bi - amping worth the trouble?


Hello all...

I'm on the fence with the thought of bi amping. A big part of me wants to go ahead with it... the 'wallet' part says "Not so fast".

There should be lots of folks who've biamped speakers before... When it was all said and done, "Was it worth the time and expense?"

I'm inclinded to add a tube amp for the upper end of my VR4 JR's ... or any other speakers for that matter... though in any case and reardless the speakers, tube amp on top, and SS on the bottom.

...and then there's the thought of keeping two dissimilarly powered amps matched at the same volume level... and the added IC's, PC, and stand... it does seem to add up.

... and at this point, I'm thinking BAT to keep things all the same... and am not sure there, wether even that matters too much...

I sure do appreciate the input.
blindjim
This is a pretty famous Active Xover I guess High End though I never used it myself:

http://www.marchandelec.com/xovers.html

This is Passive option:

http://www.t-linespeakers.org/tech/filters/passiveHLxo.html

All the Best
That speaker is not that large, and may not need tons of current for very satisfying listening levels.. The advantage of bi-amp is too balance out a top heavy speaker for the most part, loaning an entire channel to take on the bass drivers to relieve that saturation to the highs and mids.. It will be very dependent on the amps, and speakers reaction to it whether it will be worth it.

Honestly its tuff to find Biamping always better, but in some situation it could sound better. It would not probably hurt at all if using 4 exact same channels, however might not have enough advance for you to keep the investment into it. However definatley ACTIVE bi-amping, which will be at least removing your passive Crossovers from the Woofer section can be a whole different thing, and yes if you active the whole speaker you can juice more out of the finer points of discrete channels.

However again the cost and the needed equipment, Tuning, and Time can outweigh the the "Is it worth it factor". Try it first with 2 identicle amps simply hooked thru the passive crossovers. see if you wish to proceed, its the only way, you have to hear the investment or forget it.
I have been thinking about the same thing as I own VSA-4JRs and have run them with 200W SS and 80W tube amp. There are compromises with each of these. It is interesting that a couple of well respected speaker designs are essentially bi-amped, the Vandy 5A and Von Schweikert 99DB. I think that it could be worth it on the 4JRs.