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Bi amping for the lows: 4x10 or 1x18?

J

Josh Emmons

Apr 26, 2009
221
9
Castle rock, Colorado
#1
I understand what bi amping is. the highs and upper mids I will send to a 4x10 goliath 2. but the lows.... Would it be better to run the lows through a 4x10, or a 1x18?

1. What would the sound differences between the 4x10 and 1x18 be?

2. What would sound better?

3. If the 1x18 sounds better, what cab should I use?
 
#4
Your cabs aren't designed for it. You can biamp an 18 to a single 10, not 4 of them. Well you could by keeping the highs volume way down but you'd be dragging around three 10's and 80% of the box size and weight for nothing.
 
#9
The 410 has horrible dispersion and would play the mids/highs wwaaayyy louder than the 18 can play the lows making a really unbalanced sound. To sound good you want the lows and highs to be similair in spl, that's why people play 2way cabs with one 15 and one 6 in them, or 215's and 26's. An 18 would work well biamped with a single 10" speaker.
 
#10
Just because your head has it doesn't mean it needs to be used. I have a 50 watt tweeter amp in my G-K 1001RB-II but I never use it. If you chose to bi-amp, you are running into full range cabinets. You have to lug around way more weight in cabs and they are only making noise on certain notes. I wouldn't do it either. The 18 on top of the 410 would be able to compete more volume wise since it is at ear level, however, the surface area of a 410 is much greater than an 18 and thus the comment from will33. Also a lot of people on here will tell you that you will hear phasing issues. Why not just mono-bridge the amp into however many speakers you need to be loud enough for the size of the venue and be done with it? Cheers.
 
#12
Bass_Pounder said:
Just because it's there does not mean you have to use it.

Bi-amping should only be done with speakers designed for that purpose.

Most bass cabs out there are full range speakers, and should be run as such.
Click to expand...

+1 to this. I get the best results running the full signal to both cabs (1 4x10 and 1 2x10). The differences in amp (each cab has its own amp), EQ (of the amp) and the inherent differences in the cabs bring out the best in the rig, but each gets a full signal.
 
#14
You could do it, but the questions you need to ask are what 4x10, what 18, and what crossover point?

Are the 410 and 18 of comparable efficiency? If so, you could biamp. I would probably crosover farely low though as 18" speakers in my experience do not go very high- maybe 200-300 HZ crossover. At this point though, most of your fundamentals would be going to the 18, and you do not need a 410 as the power level of the harmonics could be handled by a single 10.

The modern 410 is pretty good at full range. The 18 is not.

DO you have both cabinets already?
 
#15
The only example of bi-amping that makes sense to me these days is the GK solution, where the tweeter in the cab receives it's own signal via a special cable. The idea is to keep the tweeter signal clean, but allow grit in the woofers only, from the Boost circuit.
 
#16
Josh Emmons said:
I understand what bi amping is. the highs and upper mids I will send to a 4x10 goliath 2. but the lows.... Would it be better to run the lows through a 4x10, or a 1x18?
Click to expand...
Neither. You should be using sixes or eights for the highs and upper mids, and only those designed as midrange drivers.
 
#19
Bi-amping is to some what discredited solution but it does have a certain sound and usefulness. Trace Elliot, Hartke, Peavey and many others offered Bi-amp rigs back in the day using either a 1x15 or 1x18 for lows but you might also consider a 2x15 for your lows.
The down side of a Bi-amp set up, aside from size and weight, is you need a good deal of space for the sound to develop so it's not a good solution for close monitoring and it has a long throw and may interfere with the PA system. You will need to be 15-20 feet from your rig.
The practice of Bi-amping is not so common these days due to better speaker and amplifier designs but you will still see some touring or audiophile players using a Bi-amp set up: Anthony Jackson, Jimmy Johnson, Mike Gordon come to mind all using Meyer Systems rigs.
 
#20
bassbrad said:
Bi-amping is to some what discredited solution but it does have a certain sound and usefulness. Trace Elliot, Hartke, Peavey and many others offered Bi-amp rigs back in the day using either a 1x15 or 1x18 for lows but you might also consider a 2x15 for your lows.
The down side of a Bi-amp set up, aside from size and weight, is you need a good deal of space for the sound to develop so it's not a good solution for close monitoring and it has a long throw and may interfere with the PA system. You will need to be 15-20 feet from your rig.
The practice of Bi-amping is not so common these days due to better speaker and amplifier designs but you will still see some touring or audiophile players using a Bi-amp set up: Anthony Jackson, Jimmy Johnson, Mike Gordon come to mind all using Meyer Systems rigs.
Click to expand...

You don't need any distance for sound to develop, if you did, headphones wouldn't work.
 

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