I'm new to the whole bi-wiring bi-amping speakers thing and I need help!

I have a yamaha home theater receiver and nice speakers that can be bi-wired. On the back of my yamaha there isnt a second set of L R front speaker connections. So would I need an amp to run that second set of cables to my speakers to bi-wire?

If I need an amp I would like to know what kind to buy, something not over the top.

Don't waste your money or time. Bi-wiring is pretty much just a marketing ploy. Hook your speakers up through your Yamaha and enjoy your music.

They have been hooked up and sound good but I have read that you can get more power to the tweeter and woofer if they're bi wired and would sound better especially if you have big floor standing speakers.

So its not worth it? Would it be better to just buy a receiver that has more watts per channel?

If it makes you happier it will improve the sound, if you doubt the sound you will never relax. Sure cabling, isolation etc is part voodoo, but if it is your path to aural nirvana then the money is well spent. Marketing ploy for one, is happiness for another. If you want it do it. But the acting in the films you watch, the magic music moments in the sounds you listen to or the splat in Wipeout is where you need to be at in the end.

If you really want to send more power to your speakers, buy a discreet amplifier and use your receiver as a pre-amp. The amps in home theater receivers usually don't put out a high-current signal. Wattage isn't everything...in fact, it doesn't mean all that much at the end of the day. There are 80 WPC amps out there that can blow a 150 WPC receiver completely out of the water on overall loudness (and do it with better clarity, to boot). Unless you have a really high-end receiver (I'm talking about something in the $3,000+ range), you'd be a lot better off picking up a nice used discreet amplifier. Compared to even a pretty good receiver, a nice $300 used amplifier (I can recommend some if you'd like) is like night and day, especially if you have power-hungry speakers.

As others have said, I wouldn't bother with bi-amping if I were you. Sometimes it works ok, but it's not easy to get it right. If there are any time-sync issues between the two amps or if the amps aren't gain-matched you can end up with some weird issues and imbalances...especially at different volume levels.

What kind of speakers are you using?

I might hold off on that then at least until I get my mancave going. Thanks for info.

Old School Audiophile here:

Heh, you don't need or even want separate amps if you want to Bi-Wire unless you have a cross over to assign each frequency range to each amp. Then your Bi-Amping, and that can sound different if you have say one amp that is brighter in the high end and one that has more oomph down low. But the differences are small and moving the speakers around can give you more sonic changes than that.

In fact, you can bi-wire some speakers from the same amp terminal if you want. It probably won't do anything for you sonically. But that is the classic way to Bi-Wire if you so desire.

http://www.audioquest.com/resource_tools/LearningMods/UndrstndgBiWr.pdf

http://www.empiricalaudio.com/computer-audio/audio-faqs/bi-wiring-speaker-cables

It won't hurt anything to try Bi Wiring, but it probably won't help.

Thanks. And good to know you're an audiophile I'll be hitting you up from time to time if you dont mind.

Are you talking about an active crossover? A good active crossover will certainly help if you really want to bi-amp, but they're not cheap. Most speakers that are bi-amp-capable have their own internal passive crossover hardware, though, so it's not absolutely necessary.

Yeah, the only reason to bi-wire is if you're using low-quality and/or thin-carrier speaker wire. If you're already using halfway decent speaker wire that's the proper gauge for the length of the run it does absolutely nothing.

I'm sure that CCNA knows what he's talking about, but be careful about trusting just anyone that calls themselves an "audiophile." The majority of people calling themselves "audiophiles" that I've spoken with about audio have had no idea what they were talking about. Maybe it's just me, but people tend to throw that term around a bit liberally. I mean, we all like pretty sounds, right?

A friend of mine used to work at a local audio/electronics place that's pretty well known around here (called "Abt"). He always used to say that when someone came in to the audio department and called themselves an "audiophile" he saw commission dollar signs. It usually meant that they'd be easy to talk into spending a lot of money on expensive placebos that they didn't need. The "real" audio enthusiasts were more difficult to sell on things, because they usually came in knowing what they wanted and were less likely to fall for a sales pitch.

What kind of speakers are you using? You can get some really good deals on some fantastic amplifiers if you don't mind buying a used one. The technology of making speakers sound good (for stereo music, anyway) hasn't changed much over the past couple of decades, so if you're smart you can find a high-end amp for a tenth of what it cost new and end up with a seriously nice-sounding set up without dropping thousands of dollars. You'll want to pick an amp that pairs well with your speakers, though. Different amps tend to favor different sound characteristics (and so do speakers), so a good place to start is to find out which amps balance well with your speakers.

Saw you coming a mile off. But it made you happy. Don't fight it.