Tri amping epos 22s ?

L

Leftfield

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Hi . I have a pair of epos 22 and 3 quad 405s . Does anyone know how I could bi or tri amp them ?

I don't know anything about cross overs etc . Cheers

 

graham67

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I have tried bi-amping (parallel and vertical) using quad 405s and tannoys IMO it made no difference.

Also did it with sugden amps and living voice and again found no worthwhile difference.

Active bi or tri amping is a whole different deal but that would require changes to x-over and/or your pre-amp, that I wont profess to understand :)

 
L

Leftfield

Guest
I have tried bi-amping (parallel and vertical) using quad 405s and tannoys IMO it made no difference. Also did it with sugden amps and living voice and again found no worthwhile difference.

Active bi or tri amping is a whole different deal but that would require changes to x-over and/or your pre-amp, that I wont profess to understand :)
That's good to know . Already sounds good with one amp but I wondered if it would make any difference. Cheers
 

It Cost How Much!?!

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Don't bother, especially with Quad amps. Normally you would tri-amp by wiring each amp to a separate speaker input and having a cable made up of one to three phono plugs.

Quads don't like speakers that need lots of current (like Epos, which were designed with Naim amps), 405's have current limiter circuits on them, the early ones are set at about 4 amps, later ones at about 11 amps. This means they struggle with bass hungry drive units like those used on Epos speakers.

What are you after? Better control, more loudness? Tri-amping will not give you any more loudness, but may give you better control of the units.

Rather than waste money on more 405's, why not try a better amp or a later Quad like the 606? Personally, I would look at a better amp than the 405, something like a Musical Fidelity A270 or Naim NAP250.

 

graham67

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AS the EPOS is not that efficient (if i remember correctly), a better solution might be to monoblock two of your 405s. As the PSU is then feeding only one channel. Or not bother at all! :)

 

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Twisted
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AS the EPOS is not that efficient (if i remember correctly), a better solution might be to monoblock two of your 405s. As the PSU is then feeding only one channel. Or not bother at all! :)
Bridging the 405's will make no difference, as the current limiter circuit is still there. Most after market "upgrades" of the 405 simply dump this circuit as it compromises the amp somewhat and put in some better caps. It was put there to stop idiots blowing it up.

 

graham67

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Bridging the 405's will make no difference, as the current limiter circuit is still there. Most after market "upgrades" of the 405 simply dump this circuit as it compromises the amp somewhat and put in some better caps. It was put there to stop idiots blowing it up.
The quad service manual mentions the fitment of a new clamp board when fitting the Q410MOD kit to convert a 405 (ie 405-1) to 180w monoblocks. Which I believe is to increase the current. It would be worth having a chat to Quad in any case, if the idea appealed given that you have the amps already.

 

Boegelund

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Hi . I have a pair of epos 22 and 3 quad 405s . Does anyone know how I could bi or tri amp them ? I don't know anything about cross overs etc . Cheers
I wouldn't bother, sell them and get a matching (powerfull) poweramp

 
L

Leftfield

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Wow . Missed this whole debate ! Sorry .

I should have said that I have the amps already .

More importantly they have been modified by a company called

lucid Systems . All I know is they have a power supply upgrade .

Power does not seem limited . The epos really make low controlled and powerful

bass . Probably nothing to be gained .

 

nick dartmoor

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I think if you have more than one output from your pre, and you already have the quads anyway, you might as well try it, just to see. Completely different system, I know, but I did this with my Sugden amplification and SD Acoustics speakers, and I'm very happy with the result. More control, authority in the sound. No tonal difference in the sound, but I wouldn't expect that, but the amps 'grip' the speakers in a way that wasn't happening with just the one amp running them. It's not an enormous step up, and certainly if I'd bought the second amp at new price, definitely wouldn't have been a grand and a half's worth of upgrade, but for the £400 I paid secondhand, I'm very happy. I recently did a test and swapped back to the single amp, playing the same track both ways, without altering the output level from the first amp, and I was still absolutely happy with the bi-amped setup. I have no idea of how the quads deliver current though, as it seems they have other considerations there, but if it's a simple matter and you have all the relevant parts, what's to lose in trying? Looks like the 22s have three sets of binding posts, so that's easy. You can actually get a splitter that will give you more than one line from a single output, if the pre has only one output, but I know not whether such a way of doing things is sensible, electrically speaking. If you were going to get into active crossovers and such, then you'd want to be bypassing the internal crossovers in the 22s, which is a whole other ballgame, as others have said.

 
L

Leftfield

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I think if you have more than one output from your pre, and you already have the quads anyway, you might as well try it, just to see. Completely different system, I know, but I did this with my Sugden amplification and SD Acoustics speakers, and I'm very happy with the result. More control, authority in the sound. No tonal difference in the sound, but I wouldn't expect that, but the amps 'grip' the speakers in a way that wasn't happening with just the one amp running them. It's not an enormous step up, and certainly if I'd bought the second amp at new price, definitely wouldn't have been a grand and a half's worth of upgrade, but for the £400 I paid secondhand, I'm very happy. I recently did a test and swapped back to the single amp, playing the same track both ways, without altering the output level from the first amp, and I was still absolutely happy with the bi-amped setup. I have no idea of how the quads deliver current though, as it seems they have other considerations there, but if it's a simple matter and you have all the relevant parts, what's to lose in trying? Looks like the 22s have three sets of binding posts, so that's easy. You can actually get a splitter that will give you more than one line from a single output, if the pre has only one output, but I know not whether such a way of doing things is sensible, electrically speaking. If you were going to get into active crossovers and such, then you'd want to be bypassing the internal crossovers in the 22s, which is a whole other ballgame, as others have said.
Thanks for your reply . Do you know where I can get a splitter ? Dan

 

bandit pilot

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I tri-amped 22's with 6 Albarry mono's way back when. It didn't sound any better than using 2, but the rack sure was purrrrdy. :love:

 
L

Leftfield

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I tri-amped 22's with 6 Albarry mono's way back when. It didn't sound any better than using 2, but the rack sure was purrrrdy. :love:
They didn't squeal like a pig then ?

 

mbu

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Try it and see how you find it. Of all speakers to bi/tri amp the es 22's could bring big benefits due to minimal crossover arangement. I think midrange has no crossover at all. Treble 1 capacitor ? Bass unit 1 inductor ?

I think I read many many years ago that epos used 3 Naim Nap 250s when developing these.

Great speakers. Had a pair since 98. Super with Exposure 18 range and Naim ( 250/135) power amps. And more recently a densen B330+ ( trying this again at the weekend).

 

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