(22-Oct-2018, 16:10)Vivialet Wrote: pass through should also work, I never used it.
For a 3-way active crossover you need either 3 Devialets or 2 Devialets and one power amp.
Thank you @Drifter for your input! Good question, yeah, why?
In short, curiosity and availability lol. I just bought a new TT, phono stage and the Cayin integrated Amp so I would like to try the bi-amping for the possible improvement of SQ (I know, controversial here). Besides, I learnt that both my Oppo 103D and Marantz HD DAC1 can be used as preamplifiers. In this case, I think I'll just try method one without buying the optional pre-out board for Devialet 120.
OK. Let drift a bit: I'm always tempted to buy the optional pre-out board coz I want to use my Devialet as a headphone amp (never thought about preamp coz I thought the same as Devialet puts on its FAQ session: using Devialet as preamp only is like owning a Ferrari but only driving in the first gear). I don't need to connect a subwoofer coz my listening room is quite small (L*W*H=4m*2.9m*2.4m) and I've already had too many bass problems and adding a subwoofer would make it worse (I read somewhere adding a subwoofer would make it better but that was denied by a guy who came and did acoustic analysis for me). But later I learnt that pre-out uses the WM8740 which is not as good as MagicWire DAC which is used in the main board. Considering this (especially there are ways to connect headphones to speaker-outs by some adaptors) and the fact that Method 1 is feasible now. I'll postpone the purchase of the optional pre-out board (which costs USD $400) and how things go with the current bi-amping set-up
On most questions towards hifi, you never expect to get unanimous answers from audiophiles. Such is the case with bi-wiring, bi-amping and jumper cables...Most of the audiophiles are sceptical of bi-wiring these days but in the manual of my speakers it specifically mentioned that bi-wiring will improve SQ; as for jumper cables, some say they are purely snake oils and the difference is not audible at all and the gold plated thin copper jumper will do the job; some say the metal jumpers are the weakest links in the speakers and have to be replaced by something; Some say this something can be a short bare speaker cables connecting the HF and LF posts (super cheap solutions!); some say you cannot do that and have to buy coated/terminated jumper cables
The same applies to bi-amping. The general consensus (if there's any) is that it's more effective than bi-wiring but how effective will depends on how you do it: passive or active. There's a video on bi-wiring and bi-amping discussed by Gene and Hugo in YouTube channel Audioholics which is quite good. Contrary to the claim that passive bi-amping is utterly useless, they claim that by caring matching up the system, it can still do a nice job. But course, active bi-amping is a better way to do.
Drift bank: people do bi-amping for various reasons: maybe the amp is not powerful enough to power three drivers at the same time for optimal performance (as in my case, Devialet is OK I guess but Cayin obviously has difficulties powering the bass and low-midrange); maybe they want the warm, laid-back tube sound in treble and midrange but punchy bass powered by an SS amp. I'm sort of in the latter case. Regarding active vs passive bi-amping, I'll try passive first and then see how things go.
Here I'll address @Drifter's point:
The attenuating problem you mentioned seems only applying to Method 2 but I think Method 1 should be scrutinized under the same lenses too: does Method 1 overcome this attenuating problem by connecting pre-out on Devialet to pre-in on Cayin?
I learnt that the key condition to do bi-amping is to match the gains of two amps (is it the attenuation problem we're addressing here?). But how to do this? How to find the gains of two amps (I cannot find it in the manual of Devialet and Cayin). Or I should just match the output powers (Devialet 120W; Cayin 45w/25w)?
OK, this question may seem stupid but, with two integrated amps, why cannot I just connect the same audio source to the two integrated amps using RCA splitter cables and then two integrated amps to HF and LF posts of speakers? In this way can I address the gain mismatch or attenuation problem by adjusting the volume controls on two integrated amps respectively until a perfect match of bass and midrange/treble is achieved?
Thank you~
