MartinLogan Monolith III user manual THREE Passive Bi-amplification, IIIp Connection, Page10

IIIp Connection

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 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

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

Page10 Monolith III User's Manual