Bi-Amping fundamentals

[tanmayj]

Hi, I'm a noob to this forum, so please bear with me.

I had an older H/K AVR 132 / JBL SCS 200.5 setup.
Yesterday I upgraded the fronts to a pair of floorstanding Polk Audio TSi 400s (expecting delivery today).

Over the course of the next few months I'll upgrade the rest of my system in phases, starting with the receiver.

I had a few queries about bi-amping.

Bi-amping is basically pushing two channels' audio into different posts on the same towers so that the different drivers are driven by different receiver channels rather than the same, right?

So by that logic, if you have a 100W/Ch receiver, and you bi-amp it, you basically push 200W into your speaker: is this correct?

This would mean that your receiver should be less than half the rated capacity of your speakers, or you risk overloading it if you bi-amp, correct?

For eg: If I buy an Onkyo 616 (which is 100W/ ch) and bi-amp it to my Polks (which are 200W max. power), I risk driving my speakers at the saturation point, which is risky. So if I have to bi-amp, I have to buy say an Onkyo 515 that's 80W/ch which, when bi-amped will give 160W which is fine for speakers rated 200W.

Is my line of thought sensible? Or am I missing some major point here?

 

[haisaikat]

You are right about the first part I.e bi amping is to drive individual drivers using separate avr channels.

But the 2nd part of overpowering speakers is not entirely correct assumption.

Because a avr rated 100 watts per channel may not deliver 100 w into more than 2 channels simultaneously unless it is a costly avr, read avr wattage fine prints. Also read this http://www.hifivision.com/surround-...44-underpowered-amps-vs-overpowered-amps.html

 

[tanmayj]

Thanks.

I currently have a H/K AVR with the following ratings: 40W/channel in stereo, 30W/Channel in 5.1 mode @ 8 Ohm
The polks have an amplifier rating of 20 - 200W @ 8 Ohm as per their specifications.

Since the H/K AVR was delivering power within the range specified for the Polks, I went ahead and bought them.

This is a temporary configuration for a few months. Is there an issue that you forsee with this configuration? Should I be taking any precautions?

 

[haisaikat]

Be careful at higher volumes that can trigger clipping since your AVR-s max power is limited. Clipping can damage your AVR as well as speakers. At mid volumes you should be good.