Topic: Bi Amping speakers

[ts]

Got an old pair of ADS L1290's that can be bi amped. So I need two amps. Big one for the bottom and smaller one for the mids and highs. Also need a crossover, but have no idea what to get. Already have the amps. Help! Thanks!.

[Church-Audio]

Dont waste your money. Get a nice amp and use the internal xovers. Unless you are willing to spend $$$ you will not get a return on your investment.

[ts]

Not sure I understand your response. ADS made amps for these speakers with built in crossovers but they are extremely rare. I already have a spare amp, just need an external crossover. DBX, Rane, Behringer? Just not sure which one or how much to spend. They seem to go for around ~200 on ebay.

http://www.guitarcenter.com/dbx-223xs-Stereo-2-Way-Mono-3-Way-Crossover-106515570-i1849700.gc?&source=4WWRWXGB&cagpspn=pla&=

I'm assuming this one is on the right track?

I have an Adcom 52W per channel amp for the mids and highs and an Adcom 125W per channel for the bass. The DBX gets put in the chain and bingo, no? I realize there is probably a big learning involving proper settings.

Dont waste your money. Get a nice amp and use the internal xovers. Unless you are willing to spend $$$ you will not get a return on your investment.

[Church-Audio]

Not sure I understand your response. ADS made amps for these speakers with built in crossovers but they are extremely rare. I already have a spare amp, just need an external crossover. DBX, Rane, Behringer? Just not sure which one or how much to spend. They seem to go for around ~200 on ebay.

Dont waste your money. Get a nice amp and use the internal xovers. Unless you are willing to spend $$$ you will not get a return on your investment.

You will never match the sound of the other speaker with an external xover unless you know the slope and frequency of the other xover points. Again the whole point of stereo is so that the left and right sound exactly the same so the music mix comes out.

[ts]

Understood. I modified my post above to reflect that point. I'm probably better off with a bigger amp or finding the extremely rare ADS PA1's that were made for this system.

[ts]

Not sure I understand your response. ADS made amps for these speakers with built in crossovers but they are extremely rare. I already have a spare amp, just need an external crossover. DBX, Rane, Behringer? Just not sure which one or how much to spend. They seem to go for around ~200 on ebay.

Dont waste your money. Get a nice amp and use the internal xovers. Unless you are willing to spend $$$ you will not get a return on your investment.

You will never match the sound of the other speaker with an external xover unless you know the slope and frequency of the other xover points. Again the whole point of stereo is so that the left and right sound exactly the same so the music mix comes out.

From the ADS L1290 owners manual: Crossovers - 500 Hz and 5000 Hz. High effieciency tight tolerance design with 12 dB/Octave slopes.

[Church-Audio]

Not sure I understand your response. ADS made amps for these speakers with built in crossovers but they are extremely rare. I already have a spare amp, just need an external crossover. DBX, Rane, Behringer? Just not sure which one or how much to spend. They seem to go for around ~200 on ebay.

Dont waste your money. Get a nice amp and use the internal xovers. Unless you are willing to spend $$$ you will not get a return on your investment.

You will never match the sound of the other speaker with an external xover unless you know the slope and frequency of the other xover points. Again the whole point of stereo is so that the left and right sound exactly the same so the music mix comes out.

From the ADS L1290 owners manual: Crossovers - 500 Hz and 5000 Hz. High effieciency tight tolerance design with 12 dB/Octave slopes.

I would be more inclined to drop both amps and just get a decent 4 ch amp and a stereo xover.

This is a great crossover. Keep in mind active cross overs are NOT all alike as far as performance in concerned. You do get what you pay for. It might be easier to get a good pair of passive crossovers and a good stereo amp then to go with an active crossover. You will never get the sound matched between the two sides with two different amps and different crossover circuits you can get close but that's not good enough for a true quality playback system, might be good for a beer hall   Keep that in mind as you make your final decision.This is a link to an auction for a quality crossover again not designed for home use but will work and will be very high quality sound reproduction balanced outputs on your preamp would be a requirement to use this crossover.

 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Jbl-Dsc-260-/290738737202?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43b1611032#ht_500wt_1314

Chris

[Church-Audio]

I have a Rane MX22 crossover that is sitting around without a purpose that I would let go cheap . . . however if you have two crossover points then don't you need triamp?

Yep that's three way for sure. Very expensive to run 6 channels of amps. I would just get some good passive crossovers.

[ts]

The DBX 223 xs is a stereo 2 way or mono 3 way with a sub out. I already have 2 amps. One smaller one for the top and a larger one for the bottom. Both the same manufacturer. Why would I sell them for one 4 channel with all outputs the same. It seems the bigger issue is the settings on the xover. Not trying to be a smart ass, but your replies are confusing me.

[ts]

Jon and Chris. I appeciate all of your input. Maybe this stuff is just over my head. If you guys get a chance please read thru the manual for my speakers. They are bi ampable. Page 11 shows an ADS biamplifier system control with 2 equal output power amplifiers. I am assuming this controller is an active stereo xover. I do not own the ADS PA1 plate amps that fit in the back compartment of these speakers. They are VERY rare and expensive. This is why I am trying to do this with 2 separate amps and a xover. Yes, I suppose a 4 channel amp or two separates of equal power would be nice, but as I said, I already have 2 Adcom amps sitting around with different outputs. My thoughts are to put the lower wattage amp on the highs and the higher wattage amp on the lows. The wiring would be different than what is shown on page 11 of the ADS manual because those amps in the illustation I'm sure have equal outputs based on the wiring schematic. Or am I totally soaking wet here and both amps have to be same as far as output to make this work properly.

http://sportsbil.com/ads/l-1290_and_l-1290_ownersmanual.pdf

Here's another 2 way active xover that supposedly works well with the 1290's:

http://www.marchandelec.com/xm44.html

But it's 1K.

[Church-Audio]

Got an old pair of ADS L1290's that can be bi amped. So I need two amps. Big one for the bottom and smaller one for the mids and highs. Also need a crossover, but have no idea what to get. Already have the amps. Help! Thanks!.

One question. Why biamp them? If they have internal passive crossovers? I don't see a benefit to this what so ever. All I see is a mess of wires and cables and an unnecessary expense. In live audio we biamp or triamp to increase the wattage and acoustic output and lower distortion, that is always produced when you use a passive crossover. But that's because we are driving the SNOT out of the speakers. In a home I would not see any benefit this what so ever unless you are going to get into driver time alignment and then you are into really big bucks for a quality digital crossover. And the test equipment it takes to properly align this would be very cost prohibitive that's why very few audiophiles use active crossovers and if they are Chances are they are not set up correctly..... Good home speakers should have a well designed passive crossover that will do a good job of making the speakers perform as intended. If they dont then its time for new speakers.

[ts]

Got an old pair of ADS L1290's that can be bi amped. So I need two amps. Big one for the bottom and smaller one for the mids and highs. Also need a crossover, but have no idea what to get. Already have the amps. Help! Thanks!.

One question. Why biamp them? If they have internal passive crossovers? I don't see a benefit to this what so ever. All I see is a mess of wires and cables and an unnecessary expense. In live audio we biamp or triamp to increase the wattage and acoustic output and lower distortion, that is always produced when you use a passive crossover. But that's because we are driving the SNOT out of the speakers. In a home I would not see any benefit this what so ever unless you are going to get into driver time alignment and then you are into really big bucks for a quality digital crossover. And the test equipment it takes to properly align this would be very cost prohibitive that's why very few audiophiles use active crossovers and if they are Chances are they are not set up correctly..... Good home speakers should have a well designed passive crossover that will do a good job of making the speakers perform as intended. If they dont then its time for new speakers.

I have always been told that bi amping these speakers makes an enormous difference.

[Church-Audio]

Got an old pair of ADS L1290's that can be bi amped. So I need two amps. Big one for the bottom and smaller one for the mids and highs. Also need a crossover, but have no idea what to get. Already have the amps. Help! Thanks!.

One question. Why biamp them? If they have internal passive crossovers? I don't see a benefit to this what so ever. All I see is a mess of wires and cables and an unnecessary expense. In live audio we biamp or triamp to increase the wattage and acoustic output and lower distortion, that is always produced when you use a passive crossover. But that's because we are driving the SNOT out of the speakers. In a home I would not see any benefit this what so ever unless you are going to get into driver time alignment and then you are into really big bucks for a quality digital crossover. And the test equipment it takes to properly align this would be very cost prohibitive that's why very few audiophiles use active crossovers and if they are Chances are they are not set up correctly..... Good home speakers should have a well designed passive crossover that will do a good job of making the speakers perform as intended. If they dont then its time for new speakers.

I have always been told that bi amping these speakers makes an enormous difference.

Yeah it does if you are willing to spend the money and do it correctly. Honestly though for home listening I dont see a huge advantage unless you listen at really high levels.

Chris

[mfrench]

Tony,
Try bi-wiring off the same amp instead of bi-amping.
I have a pair of Soliloquy 6.3's that I run bi-wired.  The cables are split at the amplifiers speaker output into a y-pair that enter the speakers at the separate inputs.  I like the sound better than the jumpers that were supplied with the speakers.

[mfrench]

I run two runs of 9ga. cable to each speaker; Analysis-Plus Bi-Oval9's copper.