Three: passive bi-amplification, Iiip connection – MartinLogan Monolith III User Manual

Page 10

Page10

Monolith III User's Manual

THREE: Passive Bi-amplification.

The

MONOLITH III may be passively bi-

amplified using the

IIIp INTERFACE.

You cannot use an external electronic
crossover with the

MONOLITH III (other

than the

IIIx CROSSOVER which re-

places the

IIIp INTERFACE)!

Passive bi-amplification takes the bi-
wiring concept one step further. Now
you will have a dedicated channel of
amplification directly connected to the
high and low-pass sections of the
crossover.

There are two different methods to
passively bi-amplify. The first, and
most common, is referred to as
Horizontal Bi-amping. The second
method that is gaining in popularity is
referred to as Vertical Bi-amping. With
either method you may use two stereo
amplifiers, or four mono amplifiers, or
two mono amplifiers and one stereo
amplifier. Get the idea here? With
either form of passive bi-amplification,
your pre-amplifier must have dual

outputs. If your pre-amplifier is not so
equipped then you must purchase or
construct a "Y" adapter.

Horizontal bi-amping

Horizontal bi-amping allows you to
use two different types, models or
brands of amplifiers (i.e. tubes on top,
transistor on the bottom), assuming
that they have identical gain or that one
stereo pair has adjustable gain.

However, we recommend that you use
two identical amplifiers (i.e. same brand
and model). If the ampliers of choice do
not have the same gain characteristics,
then a sonic imbalance will occur
between the high-pass and low-pass
sections of the speaker and integration
between the two will suffer greatly. By
using identical amplification on the
high-pass and the low-pass you will

IIIp Connection

Figure 3a

Figure 3a: Horizontal passive bi-amplification connection for the

MONOLITH IIIp.