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RE: Chokes, again. Primarily for those who bi-amp and use them

Posted by JBen (A) on August 16, 2010 at 07:23:53

In Reply to: RE: Chokes, again. Primarily for those who bi-amp and use them posted by johnvb on August 16, 2010 at 05:24:26:

Johnvb, yes, in a way. Until this weekend, the way I mentioned earlier is what I was using for every bi-amp configuration I can switch to at home. I may have to change that to: it depends on which.

Too many variables are at play for an across-the-board recipe. The easy way is, try! It ain't expensive at all, and well worth the effort.

Why now? I am writing a report on my experiences with the Razoring tweaks. It seemed fit to revisit the behavior of the other tweaks I've made, relative to the "new" sound. Do they behave the same? The chokes were high in my mind.

My old notes on the choke experiments early on, had a curious set of entries. You see, at first, I could only get four 5502 in March, 2009. When Mouser finally brought in 5522s, there were only a few 5522 in stock. People here were starting to awaken to the chokes. In consideration, I only ordered 2 5522, so that others would be able to get them. Anyway, I had the 5502 working fine already. Later, I discovered that the 5502 in pairs worked great for the tweeters, as long as the 5522 are in the bass panels. For bi-amping, that's how I kept things until now.

Then I found the notes, not long ago. These confirmed that -- from the beginning -- sound (imaging, really) was not as good if chokes were used just for either the low panels or the tweeters alone. In bi-amp, all drivers had to have their respective choke. That never fails to be the case here. During the Razoring tests, I had to discard a whole hour of listening because I forgot to reconfigure the chokes for a normal xover. Later, I forgot to do it for the return to bi-amping. The odd sound drove me nuts for a while until I remembered that the tweeter chokes were off.

But there was a short entry in the notes that I had forgotten. It seems that I liked the imaging somewhat better when all the chokes were 5502s (of which I had 4) than when I mixed with the 5522 (of which I only had 2). No major surprise or a biggie, by itself. However, I also noted that in one bi-amp configuration, not just the imaging but a "something else" seemed to improve.

THAT bi-amp configuration happens to be my closest one to the current MMG factory xover design. Which is why I chose to used it for some of the Razoring tests. So, I rechecked this (put all 5502, and no 5522). Sure enough. Something gained a little, slight body warmth...nice, not earthshaking.

Based on this, I finally ordered the extra pair of 5522. They got here on Friday. Clearly, the same thing happens when all 4 are 5522. Yet, this time the impact is more pronounced. The midrange gains in body and warmth. The bass also changes -- quality improves perceptibly. I mean it as a "perception" because I don't know if I can measure it properly. I don't even know that everyone would like it...

I have yet to try this with the other bi-amp configs. The notes do not indicate if the same happened but I may have not tried it. Regardless of what happens, I figured it may be of use to the few cats like us that do this kind of thing. Like I said, it is cheap to test.

Edits: 08/16/10

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