Bi-amping

Q: Is driving in reverse all day bad for my tires?

I particularly like the bit about the extra cheap speaker wire. Does this mean, Julian, you're using different kinds of speaker wire, too?

Herman

Joolz,

Just how exactly did you get the nait 5 to put an input to both an external amp and it's own internal amp?
I asked about the possibility of doing this when I first got my Nait 5, and was told it wasn't possible. Have I missed something?

Joolz,

Thanks for the reply. I'm still a little unsure about you're wiring suggestion.

At the moment, there is are two connections between the Nait and hicap.
Sounds like you're suggesting that I have one connection from the Nait to the hicap. Then two from the hicap, one to the nait, one to the nap, is that correct?

When you talk about bi-amping, are you saying that you are using an active filter, or are just connecting two power amps to the same pair of speakers, and through the same crossover?

I'm using a pair of Kabers (hence my other question on this forum). It has 3 connectors on the back. Looks like I could bridge two of them, and have a nap power those, whilst allowing the nait to run the third. Seem sensible?

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Originally posted by Joolz:
i take it from the tone of your post that you disaprove? is this from experience or just a guess? i hanven't decided to stick with this set up yet but at least i'm trying it and giving constructive feedback to others about my experiences.

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In the past I have bi-amped with Arcam A 10 - just because I ran into a s/h Arcam poweramp. Perhaps the sound got marginally better, after I had purchased an pret-ty expensive interconnect between the two amps (something which hasn't been mentioned in this thread or the zerogain thread either).

Probably I just wanted to fuss with boxes. After a little while I decided it was better to go the whole hog and get a decent pre-power combo (in this case 102 / 180) and stop tinkering.

I asked about the speaker wire because I feel rather iffy about these reports about sound getting better when you're not just using weird amp combos for Treble and Woofers but you're using wire that may strangle the sound in untold ways, plus if you're using different kinds of wire for Treble and Woofers (are you?) you're kind of tripling the inadvisibility rate. All in my humble opinion (and experience) obviously.

Herman

Mr Sukebe,

Kabers are wonderful speakers. They need a lot of power though. From what I've heard they don't really get going till you hook up 'em up with NAP250 - and a lot of folks move on to active later.

So, life is really simple. The way the go is to try and get hold of a s/h NAP250 and a NAC 102 at the least (plus Hi and NAPSC). After that you'll never need to worry about what to do anymore.

I've never heard of any bi-amper who stuck with bi-amping, so basically it's a waste of time and money. Again, this just my opinion and experience.

Herman

Well, Julian, the main difference (in this respect) between Arcam and Naim is that Arcam kind of encourage you to biamp integrateds with those poweramps, while Naim are fairly clear that biamping is not the way.

Even though Arcam encourage one to bi-amp (wanna guess why?) I couldn't hear much difference.

About the wire: of course you're totally free to wreck your sistem in any old way. I have to confess I'm a little concerned you're advising other people to go this same route. IMHO you are not dispelling myths (about Naim or anything) but you are creating / reinforcing myths about biamping. Perhaps it would be fair to head posts like that with a disclaimer à la your "what the heck."

Herman

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Originally posted by Muddyhiker:
I currently have a Naim Nap 250 (a 2nd hand bargain I couldn't resist) and use my Nait 5 as a preamp. I have a Flatcap 2 powering the Nait 5 and the Naim CD5 with B&W 805 Signature speakers. As soon as I can save enough money I intend to upgrade the Nait 5 to a NAC 202 but that may be some time away. A friend has suggested I could bi-amp using the Nait 5 for the treble and the NAP 250 for the bass as an interim improvement. Presumably it would only cost me the price of some more speaker cable. Would this set-up work or is there too much difference between the components e.g. in terms of power output? Grateful for any advice.

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In general people when they do the bi-amp they use the same type of amplifier (like 2 NAP250) and the amplifiers are checked for the same degree of bias etc. to make sure that they are practically identical stereo amplifiers. Some like this approach more than running 2 mono-amps. Your better off with using the Nait as the pre-amp. A single NAP250 will do the N805 without any problem. I have a NAP250 driving the B&W Matrix 805 and like it very much.

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Originally posted by Joolz:
making a blanket statement that bi-amping will wreck your system is absurd. also the implication that actual physical damage will result is also utter kack

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sorry, I meant wreck the sound of your sistem. An I was referring to things like using cheap and (possibly) different kinds of speaker wire.

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flog off your old amp and buy one twice as expensive to achieve the same result (a better sound).

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If you're saying going up a step (or two) in Naim amps achieves the same result as biamping you're definitely spinning myths, Julian. That is just not true. Biamping at best produces a marginal improvement.

Herman

quote:

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If you're saying going up a step (or two) in Naim amps achieves the same result as biamping you're definitely spinning myths, Julian. That is just not true. Biamping at best produces a marginal improvement.

Herman

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Herman,

I have to ask, have you actually tried/heard the effects of bi-amping? If not, don't you think that you're being a little pre-emptive.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to suggest that bi-amping is appropriate, and if you read the reply from Julian, you'll see he isn't too. At least he has the inquisitiveness to actually give it a try, as against acting like a lemming.

Reading and the Internet

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Originally posted by Mr_Sukebe:
I have to ask, have you actually tried/heard the effects of bi-amping? If not, don't you think that you're being a little pre-emptive.

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Actually you don't really have to ask, since I had already related my experiences with biamping up here, in a post of 12:08, right under a post of yours.

Herman

Hi Joolz,

Many thanks to you for your advice and to Herm and Mr S for stirring things up a bit! I don't have a Hicap although I may be able to pick one up on e-bay fairly cheaply (I've never had concerns about buying s/h Naim as their stuff seems to go on forever). If I can find one I'll probably give it a go. After all part of the enjoyment of hi-fi is experimentation.

Thanks to everyone.

Muddyhiker

Has anyone tried bi-amping with 150's?
Is it possible?
They seem relativly cheap used.

Richard

CD5-NAC112-NAP150-FC2-KEF Q1