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Bi Amp with pre outs?
Second post here, great forum
I just picked up a mint set of Infinity Kappa 7.1 speakers and want to use them in a HT setup as well as 2 channel. Apparently these require good power and are biampable. So I was thinking of using the front speaker outs on my receiver for the treble and the pre outs on receiver to a power amp for the woofer..
My receiver is 120 watts/channel and the power amp is an older Kenwood basic m1d at 125. It has volume control
Is this doable out of the pre out and would it be better than using the receiver by itself?
Thanks
I just picked up a mint set of Infinity Kappa 7.1 speakers and want to use them in a HT setup as well as 2 channel. Apparently these require good power and are biampable. So I was thinking of using the front speaker outs on my receiver for the treble and the pre outs on receiver to a power amp for the woofer..
My receiver is 120 watts/channel and the power amp is an older Kenwood basic m1d at 125. It has volume control
Is this doable out of the pre out and would it be better than using the receiver by itself?
Thanks
1 - 7 of 7 Posts
Mfr's don't recommend connecting the speaker posts of the AVR and the pre-outs to an external amp to the same speaker.Second post here, great forum
I just picked up a mint set of Infinity Kappa 7.1 speakers and want to use them in a HT setup as well as 2 channel. Apparently these require good power and are biampable. So I was thinking of using the front speaker outs on my receiver for the treble and the pre outs on receiver to a power amp for the woofer..
My receiver is 120 watts/channel and the power amp is an older Kenwood basic m1d at 125. It has volume control
Is this doable out of the pre out and would it be better than using the receiver by itself?
Thanks
If you want to provide more power to the Front L/R speakers, you'll need to add a much more powerful (eg. 250W+) external amp. That said, the Kenwood could be used to take some of the load off of the receiver by powering the Front L/R speakers on its own.
If those kappas are anything like my old kappa 80 speakers (and i think they are from what i have read) you need a lot of power for those, i bi-amped with 2x parasound hca 1000a(solid 125w per ch. 2ch amp) and that wasnt enough, it played but not great, needed to go up to bi amp with a hca 2205 (upwards of 250w/ch 5ch amp) to make them play great. This was not because of high volume playing as i dont do that.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Appreciate the input guys, thanks
Kind of disappointing that pre outs are not recommended 4 bi amp, I'm curious why? I will try my Kenwood and see how it sounds, may have to spring for a bigger amp.
Also, just checked my AVR manual and apparently has a biamp setting using the front speaker outputs as well as the surround back. Since my system is only 5.1 I may try this but was wondering if this would be preferable to just using the Kenwood out of the pre outs.
One more question, I also have in Adcom 535 power amp and was considering using Y splitters out of the pre outs with the Kenwood for biamp amp. Would that be something that could work? I'm thinking probably not
Kind of disappointing that pre outs are not recommended 4 bi amp, I'm curious why? I will try my Kenwood and see how it sounds, may have to spring for a bigger amp.
Also, just checked my AVR manual and apparently has a biamp setting using the front speaker outputs as well as the surround back. Since my system is only 5.1 I may try this but was wondering if this would be preferable to just using the Kenwood out of the pre outs.
One more question, I also have in Adcom 535 power amp and was considering using Y splitters out of the pre outs with the Kenwood for biamp amp. Would that be something that could work? I'm thinking probably not
Appreciate the input guys, thanks
Kind of disappointing that pre outs are not recommended 4 bi amp, I'm curious why? I will try my Kenwood and see how it sounds, may have to spring for a bigger amp.
Also, just checked my AVR manual and apparently has a biamp setting using the front speaker outputs as well as the surround back. Since my system is only 5.1 I may try this but was wondering if this would be preferable to just using the Kenwood out of the pre outs.
One more question, I also have in Adcom 535 power amp and was considering using Y splitters out of the pre outs with the Kenwood for biamp amp. Would that be something that could work? I'm thinking probably not
Pre-outs should be used for bi-amping, but not used along with the internal amps as that will most likly not be of the same gain as the external amp which would make the volume different for the top and bottom end and not neccessarily by a fixed dB amount. You really need to know exactly what you are doing and know/have the right equipment before even considering mixing amplifiers for tweet/mid/base.
Edit: a little easier to read
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
I have the old kappa 8.1’s, they sound so much better with lots of power. I have been a Adcom fan since the early 90’s when I used their car audio amps. Presently I use their Gfa-5500 for the 8.1’s
Several years ago before my divorce... my now x wife had a few parasound hca-1500 amps which have similar power (200w+x2) however they sound a lot better vs the Adcom, I was bummed when I did the comparison. These old kappas sounded so much better with a pair of those hca-1500’s powering them.
I if you want great sound and also like listening to music at a decent volume, you need 200w+ rms from a external amp, NOT the built in receiver amp.
As stated it’s a no for using the receivers built in amp plus it’s pre-outs to a external amp.
If I was in your situation, I would look through the local classifieds and find something like the gfa5500 where you can get a solid 200w x 2 rms to the speakers. Numerous great companies out there and you should be able to find something for $200-$500
Several years ago before my divorce... my now x wife had a few parasound hca-1500 amps which have similar power (200w+x2) however they sound a lot better vs the Adcom, I was bummed when I did the comparison. These old kappas sounded so much better with a pair of those hca-1500’s powering them.
I if you want great sound and also like listening to music at a decent volume, you need 200w+ rms from a external amp, NOT the built in receiver amp.
As stated it’s a no for using the receivers built in amp plus it’s pre-outs to a external amp.
If I was in your situation, I would look through the local classifieds and find something like the gfa5500 where you can get a solid 200w x 2 rms to the speakers. Numerous great companies out there and you should be able to find something for $200-$500
1 - 7 of 7 Posts
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