We were testing the other day a friend's system of Roksan Kandy integrated/power combo in a horizontal biamping configuration (integrated feeding the tweeters, power the woofers) but he was not happy with the sound (lack of warmth and punch) so i said why not using my Creek 4330 (which utilizes a passive preamp stage to drive the power amp and see what happens?
The sonic result was amazing,more bottom end,dynamics,speed and the most important warm analogue sound.Sounded better than the recommended by Roksan amplifier combination.
At the moment only the power amp feeds the speakers.
My question is regarding amplifier matching, gain/sensitivity/impedance.
We just connected the amps but i don't know it we should leave it like that in terms of compatibility
What should we look at in order to avoid any problems?
Find attached the specs of the amps,(the DAC connected to the Creek has a maximum output lever via RCA 2Vrms)
Cheers
The sonic result was amazing,more bottom end,dynamics,speed and the most important warm analogue sound.Sounded better than the recommended by Roksan amplifier combination.
At the moment only the power amp feeds the speakers.
My question is regarding amplifier matching, gain/sensitivity/impedance.
We just connected the amps but i don't know it we should leave it like that in terms of compatibility
What should we look at in order to avoid any problems?
Find attached the specs of the amps,(the DAC connected to the Creek has a maximum output lever via RCA 2Vrms)
Cheers
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Hi, for the right balance of all the amplification channels, you need to make sure the gain in all the channels is the same. De-facto standard gain for the power amplifier is 29db (equal to 28 times).
What I would do (you will need a true RMS DMM for this):
1) Download 1KHz test signal - easy to find on the internet;
2) Disconnect all the speakers for the exercise;
3) Play 1KHz through your system, set the AC RMS level at DAC's output to, say, 100mV;
4) Connect all your power amps (still with no speakers) to the DAC and set the gain in a way that AC RMS at the amps' output is 28x times higher (2.8V), than AC RMS level at the DAC's output (100mV).
As soon as it's done, connect everything the normal way, including the speakers - now all your amplifiers are calibrated for having the equal gain, providing the right volume balance between the channels.
Cheers,
valery
What I would do (you will need a true RMS DMM for this):
1) Download 1KHz test signal - easy to find on the internet;
2) Disconnect all the speakers for the exercise;
3) Play 1KHz through your system, set the AC RMS level at DAC's output to, say, 100mV;
4) Connect all your power amps (still with no speakers) to the DAC and set the gain in a way that AC RMS at the amps' output is 28x times higher (2.8V), than AC RMS level at the DAC's output (100mV).
As soon as it's done, connect everything the normal way, including the speakers - now all your amplifiers are calibrated for having the equal gain, providing the right volume balance between the channels.
Cheers,
valery
350 mv sensitivity is quite sensitive for an amplifier. My amp are 1.6 v or 2 v with gain turned down. What are you driving it with? most digital sources will put out a 2 vac signal. PC's are that. Most radios & CD players out the headphone jack will put out 5 - 7 vac. Out the line stage more like 2 vac. Some cell phones are more like 1 vac out.
You would need a preamp only for magnetic phono cartridge or tape head signal. Plus response curve stages to remove the preemphasis.Looks like the creek has those too, the line for "passive" must mean their line level input. If you're getting a good signal out, I doubt if creek input impedance is less than 2000 ohms, which most CD players, radios, PC's will drive okay.
You would need a preamp only for magnetic phono cartridge or tape head signal. Plus response curve stages to remove the preemphasis.Looks like the creek has those too, the line for "passive" must mean their line level input. If you're getting a good signal out, I doubt if creek input impedance is less than 2000 ohms, which most CD players, radios, PC's will drive okay.
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Passive preamp is fine, however, we don't know what's the gain of the Creek's power section, right? So, we can't be sure the overall gains of all the channels, driving the tweeters and the woofers are the same.
I don't see any possible issues with the amps' input impedances - they are normally high enough, and the DAC's output buffer, on contrary, is powerful enough to drive those amplifiers' inputs.
Teac UD-H01 DAC via RCA (2Vrms) connected to the Creek's CD input and then using Greek's pre out driving the Roksan power amp.
Not biamping, speakers are connected to the power amp
I'm not using Creek's power stage at all.
Speakers are driven by the power amp only
"Bi-amping" refers to using two amplifiers to drive a single two way speaker.
Since the two sets of terminals expect to see the same voltage, then it follows the two amplifiers must apply the same voltage to those two sets of speaker terminals.
That's why you were told to ensure the gain in the two channels were set up to match.
It's important.
Since the two sets of terminals expect to see the same voltage, then it follows the two amplifiers must apply the same voltage to those two sets of speaker terminals.
That's why you were told to ensure the gain in the two channels were set up to match.
It's important.
Initially the system was biamped with Roksan amps,they were perfectly matched according to Roksan (Kandy KA-1 MKiii with Kandy KMA 2/3)
We thought of using another amp as preamp (Creek) to see if it will alter the sound.We put the speaker links back on and the most powerful amp (Roksan) to drive the speakers.
I think your answers apply only if we intented to use both amps to drive the speakers (Creek for the highs Roksan for the lows) but at the moment we don't plan to.
We thought of using another amp as preamp (Creek) to see if it will alter the sound.We put the speaker links back on and the most powerful amp (Roksan) to drive the speakers.
I think your answers apply only if we intented to use both amps to drive the speakers (Creek for the highs Roksan for the lows) but at the moment we don't plan to.
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