I have a Polk Audio center speaker that has 2 inputs and is "bi-ampable" what does that mean?

Question

A friend gave me a speaker setup from Polk Audio. the center speaker is a Polk CSI5 Speaker and from what I can find is high end and nice. It has two inputs (2 sets of negative 2 sets of positive) and from reviews and specs it says it is " a true bi-wire bi-ampable speaker" what does that mean and how would I hook it up?

Answer 1

Bi-ampable means you can use separate amplifiers for the low and high frequencies going to the speaker system.  It brings the internal connections for the woofer and tweeter out to the back of the cabinet where you could split them if you wanted to.  To do this, you not only need another channel of amplification, you need an external crossover circuit as well.

The concept is that low bass frequencies need a big amplifier and the high treble frequencies do not - so, you give them separate amplifiers, just in case the bass momentarily demands so much of the amplifier's power that it would affect its high frequency response.  This is already being done by having a 5.1 surround system (the ".1" being the sub-woofer channel).

While I can see a possible slight benefit of bi-amping for the main left and right channels, this is way, way beyond overkill for the center channel, which generally carries only dialog (so it won't even have any low bass)!