Magnepan Tympani 1D- Bi-amping

[pdxduckfan]

I recently purchased the Tympani 1D's and would like to bi-amp them but don't know how. Can anyone please explain? I have a Denon surround receiver which can be bi-amped. Do I need an external crossover? I thought I could pull some jumpers out of the panel and plug the speaker wire in....guess it isn't so simple.

Thanks in advance!

 

[bshorey]

I recently purchased the Tympani 1D's and would like to bi-amp them but don't know how. Can anyone please explain? I have a Denon surround receiver which can be bi-amped. Do I need an external crossover? I thought I could pull some jumpers out of the panel and plug the speaker wire in....guess it isn't so simple.

Thanks in advance!

I'm still reading up on the pair I just acquired. The manual says you can biamp using either an active crossover, or with the factory passive crossover. Perhaps the factory crossover manual has instructions? The Tympani manual does not.

bs

 

[sqlsavior]

Your surround receiver will need pre-out/main-in pairs of RCA jacks to accomplish this. Some surround receivers have these, others don't. Some have them just for the front main speakers, in which case you will need another amp, as no extra surround channels would be available in that case.

For meaningful bi-amping, you will also need a line-level crossover, usually active, although DIY passive ones are possible.

I am curious why you want to do this, especially using a surround receiver. Most folks who bi-amp are already into separates, before they even think of using two amps... Do the Maggies sound good as they are? What are you hoping to improve with bi-amping?

Usually, bi-amping involves removing or bypassing the speaker's built-in passive crossover; although it is possible to use both together, it is not usually done.

If your surround receiver is disappointing with the Maggies, and the Maggies themselves are in good shape, I would think a more conventional electronics upgrade, like a stereo integrated, or separates, would make more sense than a bi-ampng scheme.

 

[JoeESP9]

Do you have the external crossovers? If not I strongly recommend using an electronic crossover. Without either type of crossover I would not attempt to bi-amp them. If you have questions about anything to do with your 1D's give Magnepan a call. Magnepan cheerfully supports every product they've ever made. They do not respond to email.

Be advised, Magnepans are generally considered to be unfriendly to receivers. They require lots of power into 4 Ohms.

 

[whoaru99]

Your surround receiver will need pre-out/main-in pairs of RCA jacks to accomplish this. Some surround receivers have these, others don't. Some have them just for the front main speakers, in which case you will need another amp, as no extra surround channels would be available ...

Most AVRs for some time now allow reassignment of unused surround channels for use in biamping or for alternate zone operation.

In these cases I have yet to see a surround receiver that performs crossover function HPF/LPF in this biamp mode. None the less, it does facilitate use of four amplifier outputs without going to external amps.

Whether this form of biamping is of material benefit is debatable, but it is unlikely to cause harm nor sonic degredation (as long the speaker crossovers are still in place and remove the speaker jumper straps ).

 

[sqlsavior]

Most AVRs for some time now allow reassignment of unused surround channels for use in biamping or for alternate zone operation.

In these cases I have yet to see a surround receiver that performs crossover function HPF/LPF in this biamp mode. None the less, it does facilitate use of four amplifier outputs without going to external amps.

Whether this form of biamping is of material benefit is debatable, but it is unlikely to cause harm nor sonic degredation (as long the speaker crossovers are still in place and remove the speaker jumper straps ).

Thanks for pointing that out.

If this were an actual debate, I would add other adjectives to such filter-less, same-signal bi-amping, besides my implied "meaningless".

 

[bshorey]

Usually, bi-amping involves removing or bypassing the speaker's built-in passive crossover; although it is possible to use both together, it is not usually done.

<snip>

In general I agree, however Magnepan does seem to facilitate biamping using the factory passive crossover. It's described in the Tympani manual. Fwiw, the passive crossover for the Tympani (and many other Maggies) is an external unit.

There is also a factory active crossover as well.

bs