Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Bi-amping the M80's

Is it possible to bi-amp the M80's?

The first option I'm interested in is the Outlaw 990(pre/pro) and Outlaw 7125(125w x 7ch). Setting up a 5.1 system, I could bi-amp the fronts to 250w with the rest at 125w. Assuming the components and speakers will do this, is that viable?

Option two, getting the Outlaw 990(pre/pro) with the Outlaw 755(200w x 5ch). That setup is pretty easy, but another $400 in costs.

Any other ideas on those options, or other ideas?

David, since the M80s have separate sets of terminals for the woofers and mids/tweeters, it's of course possible to "bi-amp" them. The way that you phrased the question, however, may indicate a misconception. Connecting two 125 watt channels to a speaker doesn't result in 250 watts being available in the unlikely circumstance that it would be needed. Each section of the speaker still would have 125 watts, not 250, available to it coming from a single power supply section in the amplifier, and there's no way that one channel can "borrow" power from the other. In short, there's no significant benefit from what's termed "passive" bi-amping.

So in essence, I'm getting 125w to the bass portion and a seperate 125w to the mid-high portion. Would I hear a difference going with the bigger amp and the 200w/ch in standard wiring?

The other thing I had considered was getting a Denon 3806, and maybe using it as a pre/pro. I like the feature set on the Denon, but think it could use a bit more power especially in a full 5.1 or 7.1 setup. Are there any other pre/pro out there with those features around $1000, or is the Denon a logical choice?

I'm using a denon 3806 with my M80's and it can drive them to painful levels without any help. I never really take it past 0db unless I want to show off how loud the speakers can go with no distortion. At +10 I can't stand to be in the room for more than a few minutes and I LOVE things loud .

Granted my room is on the small side, but I would try it by itself before purchasing any seperate amps and see how it suits you.

David, don't get too caught up in power ratings. Keep in mind that most of the time a speaker will be using about 1 watt at a comfortably loud average level. Unless the room is very large and the material being played has a very wide dynamic range it's unlikely that even brief peaks would use more than about 100 watts, if that. So no, having more unused power available doesn't improve the sound, simply because it's unused. The 3806 or similar should be excellent.

If I were to use the 2-zone option for whole home audio, will the Denon 3806 be able to run the 5.1 theater mains at the same time?

I think 2-zone uses the 6.1 or 7.1 amps to power the speakers, so I'm wondering if another amp will help without strain to the system?

I remember.....back in the 60s, talkin' about which speaker would "match" with what amp.

"Watch those impedances!" "Hows the finals' output?"

One amp works great with this woofer, but not that Mid. The other amp works great with this mid but is iffy with that woof. Hummmmm....They Just Don't Match!! These amps don't sound the same or work as well with different drivers.

How 'bout "this" amp with the woofer and "that" amp with the mid and tweet?

A half century or so later; amps occupy a different world. Perhaps bi-wiring terminals on average speakers are more like having wisdom teeth.

heh.

>>I remember.....back in the 60s, talkin' about which speaker would "match" with what amp.

The local "home theater expert" place (a different one) is telling my brother-in-law that he can't use a Yamaha receiver with Paradigm speakers because "the sound from the Yamaha would destroy the tweeters in the Paradigms".

Geez, no wonder people find this stuff confusing. If I were king people would get locked overnight in the stocks for spewing BS like that.

In reply to:

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The local "home theater expert" place (a different one) is telling my brother-in-law that he can't use a Yamaha receiver with Paradigm speakers because "the sound from the Yamaha would destroy the tweeters in the Paradigms".

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Now that's good stuff