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Bi amp max watts


erossy

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Using a 100 watt amp or channel just for the tweeter does not mean there is 100 watts going to the tweeter, the volume control plays a big part in how much power you're actually sending to the speaker. From what I understand more speakers are blown from being over-driven with not enough power versus over-driven with too much power. I would think the point is just don't over-drive your speakers and you should be fine.

 

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23 minutes ago, CECAA850 said:

If you're bi-amping the crossover isn't in line anymore.

 

Generally speaking this is correct.  However, the HF portion of the passive crossover might be used to limit the power, and bypassing the LF portion of the passive crossover for direct coupling the woofer in order to achieve maximum damping--but in effect, you're not getting the true benefit of bi-amping when you do this.  You'd have to instrument the combination of the direct coupled woofer and the passive+HF compression driver to get the crossover frequency right and to smooth the frequency/phase response.

 

If the OP was using an active digital crossover instead of the extra channels of an AVR to bi-amp, then the fast limiter built into the digital crossover can be used to assure that the tweeter isn't fed too much voltage, or too much integrated voltage over a short period of time (i.e., voice coil heating).  Virtually any digital crossover has limiting, but I've not seen limiting embedded in AVRs that are doing bi-amping duty.

 

Chris

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The R-26F has two pairs of banana jacks connected with two metal jumper strips. I am guessing the original question is about removing the jumper strips and connecting one amp channel to each pair of jacks, therefore still using the R-26F internal croossover, but powering the tweeter section and woofer section separately. Using identical amps such as on a multi-channel receiver for passive bi-amping, should be safe enough with the tweeter only getting it's proportional amount of watts from the passive internal crossover.

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The key is are you talking active bi-amping minus the speaker crossovers, wired to the drivers direct or using the internal crossovers in the speaker to manage the crossover and just hooking two amplifiers to it (passive bi-amp)?

 

You definitely need some limiting if you go direct, less if you use the internal crossover though passively bi-amping provides minimum of benefit.

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  • 2 months later...

I don't think I've ever come across anyone worried about to much power. The idea being to have enough power for short bursts when needed, in most situations you will probably find that you are not running the amp at more than 5W.

A high power amp (with the requisite power supply) will give you more headroom to avoid clipping and please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you'll find more speakers blown from clipping than too much power.
I also believe that most will advise that if you bi-amp that you use 4 amps (or 2 stereo) that are identical to achieve the best audio performance characteristics.

So if you're choice is a 100w amp, you would pick the same for all 4.

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12 hours ago, EJC said:

I also believe that most will advise that if you bi-amp that you use 4 amps (or 2 stereo) that are identical to achieve the best audio performance characteristics.

So if you're choice is a 100w amp, you would pick the same for all 4.

 

I have never bi-amped a speaker myself (though that may be my next project).  But I've heard of people using "fleawatt" tube amps for their tweeters and midrange while using bigger solid state amplifiers to power the woofers.  It gives you the best of both worlds -- the sweet SET sound with the power to pump out the Phat Bass. If you were using four amplifiers you'd want 2 of each rather than two different amps because of balancing issues but you can definitely use different amps for the low and high ends. 

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No real good reason to bi-amp the RF 26.  Any improvement will be marginal at best.  If you are shooting for audiophile quality, start with the speaker and go from there.  Audiophile is an eccentric term and nothing is wrong with your speakers.  It's just kinda like talking about a Ford Fiesta with BMW and Mercedes owner.

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