I've got a 950/7100 combo and I'm very happy with it.

I'd like to bi-amp my front left and right speakers with the two free channels I have on the 7100 for the time being.

How do I split the front left and right channel outputs from the 950 into two separate 7100 channels each? Is it as simple as a Y-cable, or is this a bad idea?

Thanks!

A simple "Y" cable will work.

dronepup,

I've got a stupid question: are your speakers designed for bi-amping? And even if they are, are you sure that biamping will offer some benefit?

Most speakers are not biampable, and of those that are, many use a passive crossover (or so I'm told) that eliminates most of the benefits of biamping.

Jeff

I have KEF Q7s, which are biwirable and, it seems from their web page, biampable.

I'm motivated more by providing more power to them rather than eliminating any possible interference, so even if it's a passive crossover, it should do the trick.

Thanks for the quick responses!

In your quest to deliver more power to your speakers, be careful that you don't feed too much to them!

They undoubtedly will have an internal passive crossover network that cannot be bypassed except by opening up the cabinet and taking matters into your own hands. Don't go there unless you are very sure of what you're doing

[This message has been edited by soundhound (edited May 21, 2003).]

Is there really any benefit to biamping if you don't use an active crossover to split the signals to the the two separate amps? If you are still sending a full range signal to the amp feeding the tweeter of the speaker and the amp feeding the midbass, you are not taking any load off of the amp. For example, the amp feeding the tweeter is still going to get, say, a 200Hz signal even though the tweeter can't reproduce it. Of what benefit would this be? I see ppl talk about biamping all of the time and have oftened wondered why they would bother if they're not going to use an active crossover. Can any of you shed some light on this? What does so called "passive" biamping get you?

Passive bi-amping in my opinion gets you nothing. The amps do not have to deliver current outside of the band where they are being used, but I don't see this as any huge benefit, worth the expense.

Options for audiophiles to make "tweaks" to their systems have become almost nil in the last decade or so, as more and more components have become "black boxes" that contain no components that can be changed out by the consumer. Consumers have to resort to "tweaks" such as passive bi-amping, cable swapping, designer AC cords and other things which do not really make fundamental changes like were possible when you could actually work on the components' insides. DIY is not nearly as popular as in the past, with the passing of most of the companies which produced excellent "kit" components such as Heathkit, Eico etc. A small number of kits are available, but they are not in the mainstream where the masses are likely to find them. Hi-Fi used to be a fun hobby for more people because of the more intimate relationship with the components, which were built by the users. Too bad......

True. My first "serious" Hi-Fi component was a Heathkit AR1500A receiver which I built years ago. It served me well for many years. It took my quite a while to complete it--there were lots of little "tootsie-rolls' and "M&M"'s that needed soldering in place.