Magpie: As you said you hear an improvement in bi-amp and do not plan to go to active cross-overs. Order the 200s. If they don't improve your performance, I believe you can return them. Going with another brand of Amp, will not improve over the Outlaw, IMO.

I am assembling a system now for my home employing the Behringer DCX2496 digital crossover feeding six M200s to tri-amp my loudspeakers - North Creek Rhythms + Poseidon subs.

The DCX is fed by a Behringer DEQ2496 driven by a CD, so the entire chain is 100% digital, until the amps.

It's an experiment.

I like the Behringer Ultra-Curve DEQ2496, it is a very powerful tool for very little money. The digital AES/EBU signal chain works until the DCX2496 Crossover...
How do you convert the balanced output signal (XLR) to feed the RCA inputs on your M200 amps?
... Do you have a pre-pro that has digital AES/EBU input and outputs?
... Would you consider using balanced I/O into your system in order to incorporate other sources?

I will be looking to do the same type of experimentation with my system over the next two years. Future Outlaw products such as the balanced 790 amp should simplify these experiments. I hope that Outlaw continues this trend by including balanced I/O in other planned products such as the 970 Pre-Pro.

... and a vote for a balanced ICBM with remote calibration of the LFE level (mixed or to a dedicated and separate LFE channel). ... just something I thought Bossobass would like to see...

Even though balanced interconnects are not really helpful in most home applications (can even hurt signal purity), the vast majority of powerful professional grade audio toys use balanced connections. It is kind of like being a McIntosh computer user in a PC gaming world. It can get realy frustrating...

Allan

I put the DEQ2496 equalizer upstream of the DXC and the digital output of the DEQ, formatted as AES/EBU, drives the DCX. The DEQ can perform SP/DIF to AES/EBU conversion: the input to the DEQ can be SP/DIF and the output can drive AES/EBU.

I bought some cables from Cables To Go. The negative leg of the balanced output is grounded, which essentially renders the output of the Behringer to single-ended operation. The DCX automatically adjusts the output span for the positive XLR leg as appropriate in this configuration.

I purchased a Roland M1000 to act as a pre-amp. It's actually a digital mixer, but it up-samples all inputs to 24-bits, including the CD player and the USB. So, I don't loose resolution when I attenuate the volume from a 16-bit source. So, my chain is PC or CD deck -> Roland M1000 -> DEQ2495 -> DCX2496 -> M200s. Since I have my whole CD collection ripped lossless .APE format, I can use Foobar to stream 24-bit, full-resolution songs in a playlists to my hi-fi.

The Roland supports a balanced/unbalanced analog input plus five digital inputs. That's enough for me. I actually don't have any analog inputs any more, but if I wanted to use a turntable, for instance, I could take the phono amp output right into the M1000 analog input.

I couldn't agree more. Balanced inputs would be a real boon. Plus, true balanced inputs would allow much more flexibility for amp placement. For example, the amp could be located closer to the speaker, if desired.

I've been doing the exact same thing for a while. I'm using a Carver Reference CD player as a source and it has it's own volume control.

The DCX is great. Do you have the latest version of the software? It frees up enough memory to make the EQ more useful. I've just about gotten it to the point where I can remove the DEQ from the chain.

Is this set-up only for stereo program playback? What do you do when you want to playback 5.1 material, like DVD?

Use a pre/pro and the analog inputs on the Behringer. In my case only the mains are biamped, so it's easily done with one unit.

For 5.1 you would need at least 2 units.

Darn, man. I think the same way too. I wish Behringer would come out a Dolby 5.1 and DTS decoder unit selling for just $300, with an output level of 3V, SN ratio of 113 DB, and converted by 32-bit CRYSTAL/AKM A/D & D/A. (The same one used in DCX, you know?) The professional user would all benefit.

Another way is to use a DVD player that has build in Dolby Digital decoder that provides 5.1 analog output and connect it to rest of the signal processing gears, like EQ, crossover...etc

That's a great idea!