Passive bi-amping with gainclone??

[steveline]

Ok, two stereo gainclones...

one pair of speakers with inputs for tweeters and woofers...

pre-amp with one stereo ouput only...

How do I wire a line out on one of the gainclones so I can connect it to the input on the second amp and passively bi-amp?

[leadbelly]

So what exact build configuration are you looking for? You want to build the high pass PLLXO into the tweeter amp, then the low pass PLLXO into the woofer amp, and then put a raw line out on one to feed the other amp's input, is that right? Any reason why you can't put the entire PLLXO in it's own box? It may cost a little more but the flexibility of the end product is so much higher.

[steveline]

The crossovers are in the speakers. So I don't want to use any external crossovers.

I just need a line level output on one of the amps.

[leadbelly]

Originally posted by steveline
The crossovers are in the speakers. So I don't want to use any external crossovers.

I just need a line level output on one of the amps.

Personally, I would just use a Y-cable. For a line output, you can just wire an extra set of jacks in parallel with the input jacks. Typically, a preamp has many times more than enough drive to drive two GC's in parallel.

[steveline]

Wiring the outputs parallel to the inputs seems like the solution I was after.

Thanks!

[Panelhead]

I do not know if you are helping yourself passively biamping a 2 way. The tweeter draws very little current. A three way with the biwiring split bass and mid/tweeter may be better.
A great application is passively biamping a 2.5 way speaker. The mid/tweeter is run full range. The bass driver just extends and fills in the bottom.
From my limited experiance, passive biamping is a waste on two and three way speakers. It seems to have real merit on 2.5 way.
Couple reasonable examples of 2.5 way, Spendor S5E, and Quad 22L and 22L2.


George

[AndrewT]

The tweeter draws very little current.

wrong!
Many tweeters demand as much current as the other drivers of similar sensitivity.
Some tweeters demand enormous current.

The biggest difference is the time that each transient lasts.
However if the tweeter is of significantly higher sensitivity then the Tweeter will demand proportionally less current but the resistive padding (SPL matching) draws the remaining current but without the reactive extra that the VC normally takes.

There are significant benefits to the performance of both amplifiers if they are each supplying the current demand of one half (or less) of the crossover and the subsequent driver.

For the cost of a chipamp, it is an experiment well worth performing, particularly since chipamps have a crippled (Spike and chip heating) peak transient current ability.

[steveline]

In my years spent selling high end audio, bi-amping and even bi-wiring 2-way speakers has always resulted in better sound.

Andrew, is the above suggestion of wiring outputs in parallel with the inputs for connection of a second amp advisable?

Thanks!

[AndrewT]

Originally posted by steveline
Wiring the outputs parallel to the inputs seems like the solution I was after.

Thanks!

I don't understand this question. Rephrase?

[steveline]

The initial question was...

two stereo gainclones...

one pair of speakers with inputs for tweeters and woofers...

pre-amp with one stereo line out (need 2)...

How do I wire a line out on one of the gainclones so I can connect it to the input on the second amp and passively bi-amp?