Since I have been doing a lot of research for a home theater system, I have found that a lot of "experts" recommend Bi-wiring and Bi-amping their front left/right speakers in their home stereo systems. The advantage is to allow a single amp channel drive the woofers and another for the mids/tweeters. Since the stock S2K system has a set of unused outputs for possible use for rear speakers, could these be used to Bi-amp the woofer/tweeter setup in the 2002 S2K?

Lucid, any thoughts?

 

The 2002 tweeter has an inline crossover doesn't it? I guess it is a possibility tough I'm not sure you'd realise a great improvement using the stock setup. I have my Focal's fully bi-wired (they offer native suport for this ) and they sound great but running 2 sets of 11 gauge cable into the doors wasn't fun

I'd guess you could get away with some thinner cable for the stock headunit output but be prepared for a chore none the less!

 

Bi-wiring and Bi-amping are 2 different things. Which do you want to do? Bi-wiring is running 2 pairs of wires, one from the 6.5 and one from the tweeter to the SAME amplifier. Bi - amping is running the 6.5 and the tweeters off different amplifiers.

Depending on how the wires are running, you could be bi-wired today. If the tweeter is in parallel with the 6.5 and just capped then you are basically bi wired (except for the length of wire to the h/u). If the 6.5 and the tweeter have a crossover (ie the 6.5 is crossover) you MAY get an advantage with bi-wiring.

I am not sure of the quality of the stock tweeter so I am not sure if bi-amping will be worth it...I will let you know when I get mine, as I plan on bi-amping.

However, if you do not want to wait, you can do it 2 ways.

1 - Use the existing amp in the head unit - use the rear outputs and connect to the tweeters. Just make sure you leave the capacitor in the circuit or you WILL blow the tweeters.

2 - Use external amplifiers and an active crossover - One amp to power the 6.5 and another much smaller one to power the tweeters. The active crossover will split the signal between the 6.5 and the tweeter. It will direct lower freq. to the 6.5 and higher freq. to the tweeter. You will not need the capacitor on the tweeter for this. Be careful of the crossover points or again you could blow your tweeters.

The 2nd method also allows you to use all of the amps power. The first method basically takes all the lows and blocks these signals from getting to the tweeter, however, your amplifier is still amplifying them and wasting power. The second method only sends the split signal to the amplifier, therefore, no power is wasted. You only need a small amplifier for the tweeters. 15 - 20 W to a tweeter is LOTS.

Hope this helps.

 

Hey - Sorry for the delayed acknowledgement, I have been out of touch for a few days. Thank you for the responses. I will probably give the bi-amp off the stock head unit a try for know, just to see if I notice any difference. I want to do more to the car system but I am tied up in a dedicated hometheater project and need to finish it before I tackle the car. I appreciate the help, thanks.

 

I would like to refer you to the following website that discusses/explains speaker wires. The gentleman, Roger Russel, is a retired engineer of McIntosh Audio. You will find it informative.

http://www.sundial.net/~rogerr/wire.htm