2 Mono's, 1 stereo, whats the difference?

[gto6]

Are there any advantages to one over the other?

[sunnysal]

some people claim better channel separation with monoblocks...

[shoemakc]

What i don't understand is how is 20' of high current speaker level connection more suseptable to noise then 20' of line leve cable?

Unless it's claimed that the amp doesn't have to work as hard with a short run, but if your using heavy enough cable that shouldn't be as much of a problem.

There does seem to be a balance between the two....however i'd wager that the line level cable has more importance then the speaker runs...although we are cutting hairs.

[Derek]

Line level is almost always shielded. Most do not run shielded speaker cable. Also, differant types of cable construction are better at specific types of interferance than others.

Derek

[Ray Garrison]

Also, most good interconnect cable is a lot less $$$ per foot than most good speaker cable.

Also, interconnects are dealing with a very low output impedence source driving a very high input impedence amp, while speaker cables are low to medium (depending upon whether tube or SS) output impedence into a low to medium impedence speaker. Much, much more current moving through speaker cables than through interconnects.

[shoemakc]

ah but ray, that's exactly my point. Assuming that a speaker cable is a linear system, we've got a whole bunch of things inducing small currents in the wire. Light bulbs, fans....dimmers, tides...whatever.

If we look at this as "noise" say.....of a few milliamps amplitude....then it's insignificant to the multiple amps being pushed through the speaker cable.

Line level interconnects on the other hand only deal with both small signal....but also a very low current one....let's say 2 mA. A few milliamps of noise on top of that can make a big difference.

That's what i was trying to get at. Not that it makes a big heck of a difference....that's why they shield interconnects and not speaker wire...and interconnects do appears to be cheaper.

-shoe

[gto6]

So, for my application it would make the most sense to go with 2 monos. My Khorns are about 25 feet across the room from my sources(not the best situation, but I have good corners there, the alternative is no Khorns...not an option). So, with 2 monos, I'd be able to put an amp on each speaker and run lines across the room from my preamp to my amps?. That way I can use 4-5 feet of unobtainium wire, and run the less expensive line cable between amp/preamp. Does that sound right?

[sunnysal]

gto6, that is exactly what I did. I have Dynaco MkIV monoblocks sitting right on my k-horns, connected by 4 foot lengths of Cardas speaker cable (big bucks!) the preamp is 12 feet away from either speaker and I used well shielded interconnect cable (Monster cable M550i) for the 16 foot runs...so far so good...good luck, tony

[gto6]

Tony....did you put vibration isolators under the mono's? I might use a shelf over each speaker.....I'll need about 25-30 feet of the interlink per side. That could get alittle expensive.