Bi-amping 340's

Hi, I was wondering if any of you with CMT 340's had experience bi-amping these speakers.I recently added a second HK Citation 7.1 amplifier to my system to replace an old Parasound I had doing surround duty.Currently I cannot fit 7.1 in my apt. so I'm doing 5.1.Since I have 3 unused channels, I was thinking of trying to bi-amp 2 or 3 of my fronts.Would I need special interconnects, or would the receiver I am using as a pre/pro limit this?(HK avr 240).I've ruled out bridging one of the amps as in bridged mode it exceeds the speakers power handling specs by quite a large margin (450wx2 channels or 150wx4 channels).Can anyone recommend interconnects for doing this?Any input is appreciated.

I believe the 340's are only bi-wireable, and not bi-ampable. You could run separate wires for each set of terminals, but not separate amplification.

I appreciate the response Mag Neato.Going back through the manual I did notice a suspicious lack of any bi-amp instruction........so I'll refrain from fixing what isn't broken.These sound just fine the way they are.Thanks!

The 340 SE can be bi-amped but it is not "true" bi-amping. The term bi-amping gets thrown around quite often because it is generally not understood.

Bi-amping generally refers to having one amplifier dedicated to a specific frequency range while another is dedicate to a different frequency range. For example, using a powered subwoofer and enabling bass management features should be considered bi-amping.

True bi-amping of a loudspeaker can only occur if the internal crossover (which is a necessary part of a quality loudspeaker) can be bypassed and the exact same functions of the crossover (various filters and contour networks) are replicated electronically and placed in the signal chain BEFORE the amplifiers. Very few loudspeakers are truly bi-amp ready as a separate fully active crossover must be provided with the speakers.

You can "passively" bi-amp the 340 SE (and many other speakers) which is simply connecting the output of one amplifier to the high-frequency section of the crossover while another amplifiers connects to the low-frequency section. This does not offer the same benefits of true bi-amping but there can be a noticeable improvement in dynamics due to the increased headroom and possibility of a higher damping factor.

Of critical importance, the amplifier outputs used to perform passive bi-amping must have the exact same specifications so ideally, the same amp or the same model should be used.

Hope this makes sense!

Hi Dave, thanks for the reply......and yes your explanation makes perfect sense.Sorry about delayed response, actually meant to post a reply sooner.I actually would like to try this.....that is if it's not going to hurt the drivers.What I mean by this is that if I do try using one of the amps to bi amp (4x150 watts-60 amps peak per channel in 4 channel mode) this could potentially feed each CMT 340se 300 watts collectively couldn't it?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by caveman

Hi Dave, thanks for the reply......and yes your explanation makes perfect sense.Sorry about delayed response, actually meant to post a reply sooner.I actually would like to try this.....that is if it's not going to hurt the drivers.What I mean by this is that if I do try using one of the amps to bi amp (4x150 watts-60 amps peak per channel in 4 channel mode) this could potentially feed each CMT 340se 300 watts collectively couldn't it?

---

You will most likely damage your hearing before causing damage to the drivers :) I don't suspect you will have any problems....

Enjoy!!

Thank you for taking the time to respond.Since I had some time on my hands I went ahead and wired 'em up.They did pretty much what you described......which I am enjoying, very,very much.With the help of your speakers, advice (and some research) my learning curve has been blissfully short. For the time being my upgraditis has been fended off for the price of a few interconnect splitters and another 12 feet of speaker wire.