I didn't want to commit Thread-jacking, however I have another Bi-amping question
I would Like to use my SS amp for bass, and my Tube amp (under construction) for Mid, and High, My Beloved JBL E60s have termainals that allow for easy bi-amping, however I do not know if I need to do something special to not Ruin the tube amplifier when I do not allow the bass frequencies to pass to the speakers. Do I need some extra circuitry in either the input line, or the output line? Or Either!??!
Please help, Thank you
-Alex
I would Like to use my SS amp for bass, and my Tube amp (under construction) for Mid, and High, My Beloved JBL E60s have termainals that allow for easy bi-amping, however I do not know if I need to do something special to not Ruin the tube amplifier when I do not allow the bass frequencies to pass to the speakers. Do I need some extra circuitry in either the input line, or the output line? Or Either!??!
Please help, Thank you
-Alex
Hi Alex,
First question is do your speakers use external jumper bewteen the mids/high and the bass binding posts. If yes then bi-amping with your solid state amp is possible. Your next problem will be amplifier input sensitivity. You may need some sort volume control on the bass amp to match the out with the mids/highs. You may have to do a passive volume control on the bass amp. The real big question is where does the JBL cross over to the midrange. If the bass driver crosses over at fairly high frequency then you may not be pleased with the results of the bi-amp set up.
You do not have to worry about what happens to the cut off low frequencies of you tube amp. There maybe a different interaction between the tube amp and the mid/high freq. cross over. You will most likely get a little bit of a different sound because the tube amp is now seeing a different load than when it was seeing the woofer load in parallel with the mid/high. The only way to tell if bi amping will work for you is to try it.
First question is do your speakers use external jumper bewteen the mids/high and the bass binding posts. If yes then bi-amping with your solid state amp is possible. Your next problem will be amplifier input sensitivity. You may need some sort volume control on the bass amp to match the out with the mids/highs. You may have to do a passive volume control on the bass amp. The real big question is where does the JBL cross over to the midrange. If the bass driver crosses over at fairly high frequency then you may not be pleased with the results of the bi-amp set up.
You do not have to worry about what happens to the cut off low frequencies of you tube amp. There maybe a different interaction between the tube amp and the mid/high freq. cross over. You will most likely get a little bit of a different sound because the tube amp is now seeing a different load than when it was seeing the woofer load in parallel with the mid/high. The only way to tell if bi amping will work for you is to try it.
Hey, Thanks for the post
Yes, I do have External Jumpers.
The Crossover frequencies are 1000, and 4000hz (I didn't even have to look it up)
What do you mean by passive volume Control on the bass amp?
The other problem/question is a little more curious. My Speakers have a Dome tweeter, the Midrange is however is Driver, and cone. Will the presence of a this tweeter mess up the impeadance of the tube amp?
Yes, I do have External Jumpers.
The Crossover frequencies are 1000, and 4000hz (I didn't even have to look it up)
What do you mean by passive volume Control on the bass amp?
The other problem/question is a little more curious. My Speakers have a Dome tweeter, the Midrange is however is Driver, and cone. Will the presence of a this tweeter mess up the impeadance of the tube amp?
The passive volume comtrol would be level controls before the bass amp used to match the output levels of the woofer to mids and highs. Sometimes when you split a cross over the output levels maybe unequal between the woffer and the mids and highs. So you will need some kind of level control to match the outputs. This also is useful if the input sensitivity of the woofer amp is higher than mid/tweeter amp. This lets you balance the sound of the speaker.
The dome tweeter shouldn't cause any problems with your tube amp. Tube amps tend to be a bit more forgiving when it comes to impedence. Try running the mids and high at four ohms also. Not just eight ohms.
Andy Bartha said:
True. Try use the (in)famous Polk Cobra speaker cable with a tube amp. No problem. Some say a match made in heaven. Then watch your ss amp go up in smoke with the same cable.
Sounds good, so just to make sure, If I try both the 4, and 8 ohm taps (at seperate times, obviously) nothing is going to explode? using this amp for mid/high should improve the sound quality of cheaper output transformers right?
You will have no explosions. It will sound better on one or the other impedence taps. This will have no effect on the sound of the output transformer. Poor sounding output transformers will not sound any better in a bi-amp set up. Quite the contrary it can sound worse.
With your speaker's cross over point at 1000Hz you will be listening to the solid state amp for all of the vocals. Female formant is about 240Hz and the male formant is about 170Hz. Your going to be listening mostly to the solid state and the tube amp will be used mostly for upper mids and highs. Something to think about.
With your speaker's cross over point at 1000Hz you will be listening to the solid state amp for all of the vocals. Female formant is about 240Hz and the male formant is about 170Hz. Your going to be listening mostly to the solid state and the tube amp will be used mostly for upper mids and highs. Something to think about.
Honestly, I can make any real deiscions untill everything is built, and I can mess around with it, then I will find my optimal set-up whether it be both SS and tube, or just tube
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Joined 2002
alexmoose said:
This is what i would do Connect it test it try it out. I know a few people including my self that does this. Class a Or a A/B amplifier for the bass and then a pair of stereo tube amps for the top end mid / tweeter. In total of 3 amps.
I'm doing exactly this- bi-amping with 300B and a gainclone into a Khorn. I highly recommend it- it sounds great. To avoid all the crossover guessing problems, I use a digital crossover. In my case, a behringer dcx2496, but there are many other choices. Some people use a dedicated computer, some build their own. The advantage is you can set your crossover freq. and type (and process the signal) before it ever gets the amp.
This is old news on this forum. But some call the Sakuma system the best there is. Now, this is not for the beginner. But bi-amping is definitively a way to go. I have too little experience myself, and only with identical amps. I still thought it was an improvement. Placebo effect? Who knows? I still think it's a very interesting option.
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