NAP 250 centre AV channel: bi-amp or not?

Posted by: Felty99 on 24 December 2015

I've found a used 250 at a decent price to power the centre channel in a 5.1 AV system in order to match the front L/R channels being driven by another 250. This replaces a NAPV175 which I will still use to power the rear surround channels. I had considered a NAP 145 but these don't come up very often and when they do, they tend to be 10 years old or so and due a service. So I plumped for a 3 year old 250 instead, thinking it would be easier to sell on if I eventually change it and not due a service for several years.

The centre speaker is a PMC Twenty.C with terminals for bi-amping and I wondered if there would be any advantage in using the 250 to bi-amp the speaker rather than my original idea of just using either the left or right channels of the 250.

One possible issue is I also run a Hi-level (bare wire) connection off the centre speaker terminals into a REL sub in parallel with the LFE channel fed from the AV processor for 5.1 material.

Anyone compared a 250 in mono vs. bi-amping a centre channel?

Would bi-amping in my system cause any problems? If not, would I have to run the Hi-level connection off the bottom (bass) speaker terminals?

Merry Christmas to all,

Richard.

Posted on: 24 December 2015 by Mr Underhill

Hi Richard,

I'll watch this with interest as I use a 250 to power my Audio Physic centre, and also use a dedicated REL Strata III off the centre speaker.

I have avoided bi-amping as I didn't want to lift the floorboards, again.

If you find it a good uplift I may be very tempted.

Posted on: 05 January 2016 by Felty99

After getting a couple of RCA-XLR cables made up, one with both left and right channels wired at the XLR end and another with just the left channel wired, I did a brief comparison the other day and didn't notice a major difference using a few familiar scenes from Skyfall.

I might do a longer test if I get chance over the next few weeks but for now I'm just going to leave it in a bi-amp configuration as it's slightly neater and easier to route the hi-level connections out to the REL sub without jumper cables in the way.

Posted on: 05 January 2016 by Mr Underhill

Thx Richard,

I'll stick as well.

Posted on: 03 March 2016 by tripleweber

Can I add a slightly different twist to this one please. I am using a NAP V145 to power my Kef 204 centre. Would a 250 be the best match to run my fronts, Sonus Faber Liutos? or would there be a better match available to run alongside the 145,

Cheers TW

Posted on: 06 March 2016 by Richard Dane

TW, the NAPV145 is a single channel version of the NAP250.2, so the latter would be ideal here.

Posted on: 06 March 2016 by impy

Hi Richard

Slightly off topic, for which I apologise - can the 145 be converted to DR spec as it is a single channel 250?

Thanks

Trev

Posted on: 21 March 2016 by Richard Dane

Trev, sorry I seemed to have missed this earlier. You'll need to check with Naim on this.