Bi amping with different amplifier brands

[Curtis]

Hi fellow fishies.
I was contemplating bi amping my monitor audio gr10’s with an arcam a19 integrated for the hf and a Roksan K2 power amp for the LF via the pre out feature on the a19.
Has anyone had success using amps from different brands in this configuration?

 

[Bairnstorm]

I tried biamping with two different makes using a VTL valve amp and XTC power. It didn't work very well as the gains were different. I have two pre outs so it was easy.

You can try it and see.

 

[hifinutt]

mmm be tempted to stick with 2 arcams or 2 roksan

 

[mega lord]

I have done it successfully combining Avondale and NVA amplifier boards in a diy system. The NVA is higher gain than the Avondale so I put the NVA on mid bass duties and adjusted the padding resistor down in series with the tweeter. Eventually I removed the resistor altogether and it stayed that way until I purchased more nva amp boards.

 

[Arkless Electronics]

You will need a passive pre between "pre out" and the Roksan as and then it will work fine so long as the Roksan is more sensitive than the Arcams power amp section and you can therefore turn down the level of the Roksan to exactly match that of the Arcam. other issue is absolute phase and if one amp is inverting then the speaker polarity needs to be reversed.

 

[DimitryZ]

Hi fellow fishies.
I was contemplating bi amping my monitor audio gr10’s with an arcam a19 integrated for the hf and a Roksan K2 power amp for the LF via the pre out feature on the a19.
Has anyone had success using amps from different brands in this configuration?

I have done that several times - usually tubes on top and solid state on the bottom.

You will need a potentiometer or a hard wired voltage divider on the amp with higher gain. You will also need to figure out if one of the amps is phase inverting and wire the speakers accordingly - as Jez says above.

I recently tried using two identical stereo amps as left and right biamp, but eventually preferred switching them to mono configuration and just biwire.