Phoenix Gold Phorum

Could the MB Quart RSB 160's handle being bi amped with a xs4300 or would it be to much power to the tweeters??

would depend on how its set up......

ttocs wrote:would depend on how its set up......

Hmm, You know one channel to each input on the crossover...

How do you mean?

i did it back in the day but my 2 m25 were hard clipping to keep up with my sub the xover got damaged and the tweeter poped


think ttocs is ask how much power ect ect

Bi-amping doesnt mean sending more power to the tweeters. Unless of course you go crazy with the gains and boost the tweeter level. I cant imagine anyone doing this.

You set the woofer gain like usual and then adjust the tweeter gain so it sound good to your taste.

If you play too loud then the woofer amp may go into clipping but the tweeter amp wont be anywhere near clipping. Music signal contains so little energy in the tweeter range. This is assuming using active crossovers. If you use passive crossover then the tweeter amp may clip as usual.

Bottom line is you wont be sending any more power than usual to the tweets.

Mr. Wild wrote:Bi-amping doesnt mean sending more power to the tweeters. Unless of course you go crazy with the gains and boost the tweeter level. I cant imagine anyone doing this.

You set the woofer gain like usual and then adjust the tweeter gain so it sound good to your taste.

If you play too loud then the woofer amp may go into clipping but the tweeter amp wont be anywhere near clipping. Music signal contains so little energy in the tweeter range. This is assuming using active crossovers. If you use passive crossover then the tweeter amp may clip as usual.

Bottom line is you wont be sending any more power than usual to the tweets.

Right on. I tried em out and they sounded great with 150watts but not biamped but since I EXPLODED that amp......... yadda yadda

what I mean is if its done right there isn't anything to worry about no matter how much power you send it for the most part but at that point it really isn't something that you want to adjust by ear, time for a scope. Bi-amping will give you more adjustment to allow you to tune it to what you like or think sounds better but along with that power comes the power to bury yourself by not doing it right and burning something up.

I bi-amped my diamond hex 3-ways but this time I am just going to use the cross-over for the Ti elite's. The cross over slopes have been calculated to give the smoothest transition between the two speakers and to think you can just hook it up, get better sound and have nothing to worry about is a nice thought but not how it works. I would probably recomend just bridging the amp to give the speakers as much power as you could and let the cross-overs do their job. If I am not mistaken the bostons have a light in the cross-over to burn off clipped power that would normally be fed to the tweeter like bose does when it clips? With that option there is significantly less to worry about the tweeter blowing then there is with other speakers if you are worried about it....

ttocs wrote:what I mean is if its done right there isn't anything to worry about no matter how much power you send it for the most part but at that point it really isn't something that you want to adjust by ear, time for a scope. Bi-amping will give you more adjustment to allow you to tune it to what you like or think sounds better but along with that power comes the power to bury yourself by not doing it right and burning something up.

I bi-amped my diamond hex 3-ways but this time I am just going to use the cross-over for the Ti elite's. The cross over slopes have been calculated to give the smoothest transition between the two speakers and to think you can just hook it up, get better sound and have nothing to worry about is a nice thought but not how it works. I would probably recomend just bridging the amp to give the speakers as much power as you could and let the cross-overs do their job. If I am not mistaken the bostons have a light in the cross-over to burn off clipped power that would normally be fed to the tweeter like bose does when it clips? With that option there is significantly less to worry about the tweeter blowing then there is with other speakers if you are worried about it....

Yeh. I need more power to my fronts and my partner is gonna lend me the 4600 that didnt sell. Last time I tried a 4600 to a set of comps I didnt even get to set gains. The speakers smoked as soon as I turned on the system and turned it up ( well before clipping) I really like this style of quarts sound. I dont wanna ruin em. I figure biamping will give me 300 watts instead of 600..

next time you power an amp up, make sure the gain is down.... All the way down is best but still it should be checked so it doesn't "smoke" the speakers as you described.

Ideally you need an RTA to set the tweeter level...

ttocs wrote:next time you power an amp up, make sure the gain is down.... All the way down is best but still it should be checked so it doesn't "smoke" the speakers as you described.

That's how I have my system installed, where I am using the M44 for the QSD 216 comps. I have the front channels powering the tweeters and the rear channels powering the mids, all in left/right stereo. And all of the gains are turned to minimum settings.

I tried bridging the M44 - rear channels to the left side mid/tweeter and front channels to the right side mid/tweeter - but after I really prefer the independent left/right stereo arrangement for each mid and tweeter. I just think it sounds better. But, "to each their own".

ttocs wrote: I bi-amped my diamond hex 3-ways but this time I am just going to use the cross-over for the Ti elite's. The cross over slopes have been calculated to give the smoothest transition between the two speakers and to think you can just hook it up, get better sound and have nothing to worry about is a nice thought but not how it works. I would probably recomend just bridging the amp to give the speakers as much power as you could and let the cross-overs do their job. If I am not mistaken the bostons have a light in the cross-over to burn off clipped power that would normally be fed to the tweeter like bose does when it clips? With that option there is significantly less to worry about the tweeter blowing then there is with other speakers if you are worried about it....

I think there is a little confusion here. Running the components amped without their passive crossover is called "active" because you typically have a digital network doing what the passive system would do, except requires tuning which can be a huge time consumer (& driver consumer if not paying attention). I think this is what ttocs is warning about, and Id agree using the passive crossovers will be ideal for keeping it simple and reliable, but I dont think nutxo ever intended to not use the passive network.

bi-amping is when the passive crossover has separate inputs for the tweeter and the woofer, and instead of running a single channel to the crossover (which usually just bridges the two networks inside), you have a dedicated channel to the tweeter and to the woofer. I like doing this because more often than not the woofer needs a lot of power while the tweeter needs very little. Running the components off a single high power channel may get the woofer to its power level of choice, but the tweeter can become too loud & not have enough attenuation control in the crossover to compensate. Running biamped lets you push a lot more power to the woofer where you want it, while keeping the tweeters quieter because you can have that channel's gain set much lower & still get plenty of volume. Bi-amping introduces an option for balancing output between woofers & tweeters while retaining the Xover freq curves but allowing different power levels to each driver.

I would start by setting the gains for the woofers, and then turn up the tweeter channel gain to taste. Odds are pretty good you will not have their gain even close to what the woofers will be at, and as long as its at or below the woofer gain the tweeter is not at any more risk than it would be if the system was not bi-amped.