[intence]

Hello,


I'm thinking of getting the SA-XR70 because of the Bi-Amp feature. I noticed that you Bi-Amp by selecting both speakers A and B (and there's probably a bi-amp button someplace).


If i'm Bi-Amping my mains, can I still use the surrounds simultaneously? The reason i'm asking is because in previous receivers that i've used, it wasn't recommended that the surrounds be used if you were using the "b" set of speakers at the same time.


If I can bi-amp my mains, and still use the XR70 to run everything else, that would be perfect, if bi-amping means that the surrounds can't be run from the same receiver, then that might be difficult.


If anyone knows for sure, please let me know.

 

[intence]

bump

 

[WonHung]

I don't know much about this particular receiver. Tried to get some specs on the Pany website and couldn't determine if the receiver has 5 channels of amplification or more. Assuming it does do 5 channels and depends on a powered sub, no, you will not be able to have this receiver do all the speakers AND bi amp the mains. The only way I see you being able to do this is to select one set of channels be it for the biamp of the highs or lows and run your rear surrounds in SERIES to this connection. This will increase the overall impedence that set of amp channels sees and will change how it performs relative to the other set of amp channels without the increased impedence to deal with. And you won't get the true channel separation as you'll be feeding the same signal output for the mains into the rear surrounds. So basically you're running 4 speakers but no discrete surround. On a side note, frankly, I think it's a waste to even set up a receiver to biamp as you're not getting one of the benefits of having a biamp configuration with separate stereo amps which is another power supply added in to the mix.

 

[intence]

Putting the benefits aside, that means if I did get the XR70 and use the BiAmp option, I would only be able to use Stereo? That's somewhat pointless. I could turn off biamping, but then disconnecting the wires on the speakers and putting the connectors between the hi/lo inputs would be a pain each time I wanted to go back and forth.

 

[WonHung]

Quote:

Originally posted by intence Putting the benefits aside, that means if I did get the XR70 and use the BiAmp option, I would only be able to use Stereo? That's somewhat pointless. I could turn off biamping, but then disconnecting the wires on the speakers and putting the connectors between the hi/lo inputs would be a pain each time I wanted to go back and forth.

That's right. If you bi amp, you're limiting yourself to stereo operation. Bi amping isn't just some easy thing to do. It's a shame that with all the hype that the real details get masked in the ether. I'm doing what many call passive or pseudo bi amping. Actually some people have a fit even with using the term passive bi amping. Because there are really two true flavors of bi amping, passive and active. Passive contrary to what most people think isn't just running extra amps into a speaker leaving the passive internal speaker crossovers to filter the frequencies. Passive bi amping in the true sense is using a passive external crossover unit to filter the signals before they get to the amps. Active is the use of an external powered crossover in the same manner. I'm doing the more common bi amping where I use two stereo amps driving my mains. The only difference is that the amp channels tied to the woofers are filtered a bit via the high pass crossover output of the sub I dedicate full time to the mains. I prefer to leave the speaker's crossovers in place as I don't trust myself to get an external crossover dialed in correctly to the speakers. And I don't feel like modifying the speaker by pulling out the internal crossovers with the requisite direct wiring of the drivers to the outputs of the amps.

 

[avmem]

intence,


The manual states that bi-amp sound is only available when sound is delivered as analog stereo or PCM stereo sound - it will not work with Dolby Digital or DTS.


avmem

 

[intence]

Argh, that was a major reason I would have picked the XR70 over the XR50.


Thanks for the responses though, at least I know it would have been a waste for me to get the 70 as opposed to the 50.