I was thinking of buying the 755 to run my 5-channel HT. However, all of my speakers are biampable. So, I'm considering buying the 770 for two reasons: (1) it's a future upgrade path to 6-7 channels; and (2) I can biamp the front R/L speakers or the center channel speaker.

Has anyone biamped (by biamp, I mean split the signal coming from the preamp, route it to two amps on the 770, and run wires from the amps to the two inputs on a speaker) their speakers with the 770?

What is the difference between bi-amp and bi-wire? What are the trade-offs?
DMC

Bi-amping is using two amp channels to drive a single speaker (one for the high frequency, one for the low frequency). Bi-wiring is using one amp channel to drive one speaker, but running two separate wires from the amp to the high freq and low freq binding posts. Bi-amping is a lot more expensive, since it requires twice as many amp channels.

------------------
gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

I'm not sure I understand bi-amping. I thought... that in order to bi-amp, your pre-amp had to have the ability to filter the high frequencies from the low frequency and then send the split information to the different amp channels. If you simply send all of the information to two different amp channels then the speakers would see the full range of frequencies being sent to each half of the speaker. What purpose would that serve?

I'm confused??????

[This message has been edited by flyntm (edited June 13, 2002).]

From what I've heard before, both bi-amping and bi-wiring typically (with a few special exceptions) still rely on the speaker's crossovers. What it's doing more than anything else is separating the high frequency and low frequency signals at the speaker cable. Here is a page I found in a quick Google search that looks at one explanation of why there are benefits to using bi-wiring (or bi-amping). (Edit: for what it's worth, here is another link. Neither link strikes me as being the most satisfying information source, but they are at least a start.)

------------------
gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

[This message has been edited by gonk (edited June 13, 2002).]

Why would you need to bi-amp your speakers with a 200 W per channel amplifier???

Bi-amping allows you to connect multiple amplifiers up to a speaker, so that you can power the midrange driver and tweeter with one amplifier and the woofer with another. Generally, bi-amping is beneficial if you are currently using a small amplifier or the speaker output of your receiver to power your speaker, since you can add a second amplifier to "pick up the slack." However, a 200 W amplifier should have more than enough power to drive your speakers -- unless your living room is the size of a gymnasium. You might consider bi-wiring the 770, although the difference in sound will probably be negligible.


[This message has been edited by dmeister (edited June 13, 2002).]

My speakers are already biwired (actually, the front L/R are triwired). I have a nice two-channel amp that drives the front L/R speakers. I have 5 speakers right now. My ultimate goal is to use the nice amp to set up a 2-channel only system. So, if I get the 755 or 770, this new amp will be my dedicated HT amp. Currently, I'm using an Onkyo receiver as an amp -- I have a separate preamp.

When I get the 755/770, though, I'll have a bunch of extra channels until I set up my 2-channel system. So, I'm just thinking that I could passively biamp the center channel speaker to see if I can hear any difference. My rear speakers are biampable, also, but I cannot get enough wire to them to biamp them (the routing is kind of strange and is maxed out currently).

My center channel is 4 ohms and I think drops pretty low. I don't think that power is the issue -- if biamping would help clarity and perhaps extend the low end of the speaker, then it would be worthwhile, particularly because I'll have as many as 4 extra channels doing nothing. My ultimate goal is a 7-channel setup; thus, I'm considering the 770. (Although the current room/house doesn't allow a 7 channel setup; but I'll only be here about a year.)

Hey Gonk, Thanks for the links. I agree with you that these links really don't make much of a case for bi-wiring. And, I still don't see any advantage to bi-wiring. That is as long as you were using speaker cable that was reasonably large to start with. I currently have my 750 bi-wired to my front speakers so it's easy for me to switch back and forth from bi-wired to a standard connection. There is no difference!

I have biwired (actually, triwired) cables simply because they came with the speaker (I bought my Linn 5140s and cables from a friend who bought Vienna Acoustic Beethovens). When I bought my Mirage speakers, also used, they also came with biwired speaker wire (which I'm now using to power my Linn 5120 center channel, also -- you guessed it! -- bought used).

If I buy the 770, I'll have 4 amps doing nothing for a while. I figure I can test biamping to see if it makes any difference at all. I already have the cables; I just need to modify them a bit. If biamping doesn't make a difference, then there's no loss. If it does make a difference, then I might keep the speakers biamped.