You know what is meant when people would refer to 'bi-amp' in the past- active crossover, each band sending a separate signal to an at least one amplifier channel, which then sends it to at least one driver that's designed to handle the frequencies it receives, mainly to increase the efficiency of the system/provide more SPL and eliminate the insertion loss/possibility of making a small bonfire out of a passive crossover.

What does 'dual' mean? It's two of something- amplifier channels receiving and sending the same signal, in this case. The amplifiers are receiving the same input signal, rather than something different. How it reacts to the crossover is up to the design.

"Passive bi-amp" configurations don't have a low pass, bandpass or high pass crossover in the upper range where the passive crossover operates. Passive bi-amping does nothing to address the benefits that active crossovers provide, as I noted in the previous post.

"Passive bi-amping" can provide slightly lower distortion through each channel operating at approximately half power when compared to the SPL produced by only pone channel and it can add some headroom, but if someone is operating the system at moderate levels, I see no reason for this practice. If the amplifier is operating at less than half of its maximum output with one channel driven, it's probably introducing less than .001% THD and it shouldn't produce much IM distortion if it was designed well. Halving these distortion numbers is likely to be inaudible.

edizzle can also get you a $10000.00 power cord and some cable lifters if you are interested :D.

If you buy two...... I’ll ship the second one for free!!!!

Hell, I'll sell you some "cable lifters" for your Wi-Fi signal. Just like the Wi-Fi signal, you can't see the "lifters". But they really do boost the signal. Trust me! $499 each, manufactured by Boiron

[Link: en.wikipedia.org]

More goes on than filtering out. IM distortion depends on different frequencies being amplified. If you amplify only mids and highs, there's no way for bass frequencies to contribute to IM. Looked at another way, when a loud bass note hits, all but the stiffest power supplies will dip just a teeny bit. When that bass note hits, then, the high frequencies being amplified at that moment are not quite as loud as they should be.


Some of the world's best sounding speakers have coils and capacitors, and one could say that those components color the sound, but one could also say that the judicious selection of excellent parts gives those incredible speakers the great sound they have.

Whatever "soaking power' is, I'd bet it would show up on a loudspeaker impedance graph. And I've seen plenty of impedance graphs that had a bass peak, a midrange peak, and then were pretty damn flat out to 20K.

Speaking of soaking power, are you ready for the fact that a Zobel network can be added to a speaker to smoothen its impedance over frequency (above the driver's resonance) and it does so by... drum roll... soaking power.

You see, above resonance there's usually a low point in the impedance, and then the impedance rises from there. A Zobel network adds a load above the resonance so that the crossover sees a more linear load.

This is a case where something that might sound bad, "soaking power," actually improves performance. This case is similar to the "ground loops" we live with every day, without even realizing they are there, because most ground loops don't introduce and problems into a system. (An example of such a ground loop is the ground paths between a CD player and an amplifier. There are two grounds, two shields, two ground paths... it's a loop all day long.) We only choose to utter the term "ground loop" when we have a problem ground loop.

I was just thinking I should open up a custom high end cable site and offer free cable lifters with every purchase!

Probably referring to insertion loss.

I hope those cable lifters keep the wires absolutely horizontal. Otherwise the electrons will tend to pool at the cable dips.

On further thought, there should be a deliberate tilt associated with the lifter installation. At the low point an accessory "drain" device should be installed to extract and recycle the pooling electrons. This device should cost at least a few hundred dollars. And a monthly service charge could be added to allow the device to send the recycled electrons to a secure website for proper handling.

Free????????

You know the audiophile philosophies that "If it's cheap, it can't be any good" and "If it's expensive, it must be good"? Maybe a "Buy one, get the other for half off" would be better.

I hope there's some way to clean the electrons that have been laying in the bottom of the trough- they become pretty filthy.

Quickly read through thread and I'm not sure if anyone actually answered your question.

Using the passive cross over built in the speaker, I believe the correct answer is to use two identical amplifiers driven with identical audio signals. One amplifier connects to the high pass input and the other amplifier connects to the low pass input.

Amplifier brand and amplifier power rating can vary. Amplifier power rating will determine total spl before distortion and amplifier brand will determine overall sound quality.

Every place I've ever seen the term "insertion loss," there has been a diminution of signal due to completely understandable factors. The first place I saw it was with antenna signal splitters, where using a two-way splitter caused an "insertion loss" of about 3.5 dB.

That's 3 dB of signal diminution on each output because the signal is being split in two (so DUH), and a guess that resistance and other imperfections diminish the signal by a small amount for other reasons.

There's nothing about the act of inserting something in a circuit that causes a loss. Insertion loss is a confession that you don't understand what's happening.

EDIT: In other words, if you insert something into a circuit, there's no actual loss... my Physics classes were so long ago I've forgotten the term, but it's conservation of something or other. If the diminution is not explainable by normal processes... where does the energy go? Into heat, entropy, somewhere.

What did you just say?

The reduction of signal is usually called 'attenuation'.

Yes, there is a loss- of signal strength. We're not discussing this on the level of total energy.

The words you're using are accurate, but not typical. Using 'halved' would be better because 'split in two' usually implies breaking, tearing or cutting which is unnecessary for the discussion of signals unless the signal is so strong that heat becomes an issue.

You really need to learn to search on the internet! 'Insertion loss' is a commonly used term in communications and has been for a GD long time. YOU need to get your shit in order before you claim that someone else doesn't understand what they're dealing with. There's no way to avoid losses in signal- that's well known by anyone who remembers basic Physics. Stop trying to teach us what we already effing know! You're thinking of Conservation of energy, which states that energy can neither be created, nor destroyed- only converted from one form to another.

[Link: en.wikipedia.org]