Any thoughts on using 200s for bi-amping?

I currently use the 950 and 755. I had planned on going to a 7.1 setup sometime in the future and using a pair of Aragon Palladiums to drive my mains. If I used 4 200s instead, it would push that expensive purchase way into the future. While I currently drive the mains at 200w I'd like to move to their rated 400w.

What are the downsides to this? Is using a y-connector to 2 amps a problem?

Also, I noticed the signal to noise ratio is quite a bit lower than the 755. What does that mean in practical terms? Thanks.

I noticed that the signal to noise was lower too. 100 db for the 200 and 119 dbfor the other two amps. The 200 is unweighted though. What does that mean?

"Unweighted" measurement means that there were no filters in line with the measurement device; the entire frequency spectrum is measured. "Weighted" measurements have filters in line with the measurement device, the most common being "A" weighting. "A" weighting is the same as the "A" weighting on the RadioShack sound level meter, and rolls off on the high and low end to measure mainly the mid frequencies, to which are ear is most sensitive. An "A" weighted measurement will almost always give a 'better' measurement figure since you're only looking at a 'slice' of the frequency spectrum. These filters are useful in helping to determine at which point in the frequency spectrum the noise resides, or if it is distributed equally.

[This message has been edited by soundhound (edited November 25, 2002).]

I need some advice:

I just received 3 M-200's and I'm going to use them to power my front using my 1050 as a preamp. Should I bi-waire my fronts, using the 1050 for the highs and the M-200 for the lows...or should I just the M-200 to power my speakers! Any help is grealy appreciated!

I forgot to ask if is would be ok to stack all three of them on top of each other?

Thanks Again!

This matter was discussed in the "Model 200 Manual" thread; I think a fair summary is that stacking 2 is fine, stacking 3 is kind of OK as long as there's plenty of ventilation, but any more is not OK.

Re the bi-amping, if you can do it without having to buy new speaker cable or anything, why not try it both ways and see which is better? You're talking about passive bi-amping (i.e. still using the speaker's crossover) and I think the general consensus is that passive bi-amping doesn't help much, so I would suspect you'd be better off just using the 200 as an amp and letting the receiver act as a pre-pro.

With regard to bi-amping - do you feel you are running short on power? It seems to me that 200W of power to your speakers would allow you to play INSANELY loud. I guess I just can't comprehend needing any more power than that. However, if you DO want to do the biamping thing, yes, you will need to use a "y-cable" into the amps. Just make sure you keep the polarity the same all through the system. If you get it backwards, you'll end up with a big null at the frequencies around the crossover point of your speakers, which of course you don't want.

Again, (and this is just my opinion), unless your speakers are highly inefficient, or you have a listening room the size of a gymnasium, I don't think you'll realize much of a benefit from bi-amping.

Just my 2¢
Jason

Edit....

[This message has been edited by soundhound (edited January 16, 2003).]

I'd have to second marcvh's opinion on passive 'bi-wiring'. I really fail to see the need for it, especially with a powerful amplifier like the 200. In reality, bi-wiring (or more accurately, "parallel amping") a speaker just puts twice the amount of active electronics in your signal path, which is not necessairly a good thing. All it buys you is the ability to independently adjust the levels of the high and low frequency drivers if the amps have level controls. If they don't, the high / low frequency balance can get messed up if the amps have different sensitivities. As long as you leave the speaker's crossover network in there, you're still asking the amplifier that drives the high frequency drivers in the speaker to amplify the entire frequency spectrum. The speaker's crossover just filters the low frequencies out, that's all. Nothing is really gained. Actual bi-amplification is when the frequency division into highs and lows takes place in an external low level crossover. The benefits of this are that each amplifier has to reproduce only a limited bandwidth, and therefore the power is utilized more effectively, and distortion (harmonic and intermodulation) is reduced. Also, more precise crossovers can be made using low level electronics and components, verses big passive inductors and capacitors used in a speaker enclosure. Since each amplifier is connected directly to the driver's terminals, damping factor is increased, there is less likelihood of interaction with the speaker wire, and the amplifiers are presented with a much easier load. The downside of doing this however is that if you rip out the speaker's crossover, you loose any 'voicing' that the manufacturer may have done, but this can be overcome by using an active equalizer.


[This message has been edited by soundhound (edited January 16, 2003).]

Follow this link to an explanation of the pros & cons to biamping according to Cary Audio Design. The fact that they want to sell you several Cary products isn’t subtle.
http://www.caryaudio.com/html/biamping.html

Also NHT shows how to drive two of their speakers from one NHT A1, sorry Outlaw 200. Yes friends, it appears the 200 is available from NHT. See my topic “Now Hear This!!” for the url.

My 2 cents on bi-amping is that everything you do to a music system will change it sonically. That doesn’t mean the sonic change is “big” or even to your liking. Whether or not you can justify the “upgrade” given the cost that may be involved is another thing. But I would suggest trying different solutions and making up your own mind. After all, isn’t that what this hobby is all about?