Bi amp or even tri amp

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Dr Bunsen Honeydew
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Bi amp or even tri amp

Unread post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

Back in the old days before the 5 year break in production I was very keen on bi-amping, even in preference to bigger amps. The balanced change with the new version of the big amps with bigger power supplies and large heatsinks that took my preference back the other way.

Well I have been reconsidering my position and my opinion has changed again. Let us take two direct cost comparisons - 2 A80 v 4 A40, well you will say they are not price comparisons, but in usage they are, in both case if you want what NVA does with music you need the better cables (read the reviews) and doubling of the cable cost puts the two systems on a par.

I will not go into the technical aspect as you are NVA users mostly so you know it is only the music that is important.

Musical choice.
A80 - power and control, a sense of weight in the music
2 x A40 - Information and insight into the music, clarity. The double cabling is contributing to this not just the amps.

So the choice depends on what you want from your music, we are talking subtlety not gross, there would be no justification to swop one for the other, both have over 90% of what is musically important. BUT if you have the room for the extra boxes, and as one set is only doing voltage drive in the tweeter set the A40's can be stacked per ch.

So as you grow with NVA don't think you have to trade in the amp for a bigger one, just get two of the same. Obviously a P50 or P90 is required as they have three sets of outputs. Taken a stage further back in the old days we had 3 way floor stand-ers being tri-amped, again subtle musical improvement. From Cube 3 upward there will be an option of 4 terminals.

IMPORTANT - I am only talking about NVA systems, if you mix and match different makes of amp and especially different cables then you cannot predict the result.

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karatestu
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Re: Bi amp or even tri amp

Unread post by karatestu »

Good post Doc.

You can never have too many amplifiers. :guiness; Must get my speakers triamped soon .
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Latteman
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Re: Bi amp or even tri amp

Unread post by Latteman »

Big 👍🏼 here for bi-amping- read about its benefits from the archives- does add cable expense though- but who doesn’t like a bit of additional nva cable 🎶🍻
Analogue Source -
Denon DP47f- Ortofon mc20 supreme
Ifi Zen Phono
Doug Self balanced Pre amp
Akai 4000DS mk2 R2R
Digital Sources- IfI stream, Ifi Neo idsd Dac; Tidal / Radio Paradise
Amplification Nva 30vdc mono blocks
Speakers Lii Audio F-15 in Open Baffle; Ls6
Weiduka AC8.8- for digital sources
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Re: Bi amp or even tri amp

Unread post by zebbo »

I was using a pair of A80's to drive the bass/mids and an A60 to drive the tweeters of my Cube 1s - couldn't really discern much of a difference to using the A80's alone.
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Re: Bi amp or even tri amp

Unread post by CN211276 »

I have not got the space to bi amp. Instead i upgraded from LS6 to TSCS and it made a really big difference.
Main System
NVA BMU, P90SA/A80s (latest spec), Cube 1s, TIS, TISC(LS7)
Sonore OpticalRendu, Chord Mscaler & Qutest, Sbooster PSs
Network Acoustics Eno, ifi iPurifier3, AQ JB FMJ, Cisco 2940 & 2960
DH Labs ethernet, BNC & USB cables, Farnells cat 8 ethernet cable

Second System
NVA P20/ A20, Cubettes, LS3, SSP, SC
Sonore MicroRendu, Chord Mojo 2 MCRU PSs, AQ Carbon USB cable & JB FMJ

Headphones
Grado SR325e/Chord Mojo, Beyerdynamic Avetho/AQ DF Colbat

RIP Doc

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