Digital Bi-amp

[dave1foot]

Hi All, my band just bought a pair of RCF HD 10-A active PA speakers, RCF describes them as "Digital Bi-amp" which got me curious as we just moved from Wharfedale Pro's which in my view are a more 'traditional' design.

 

Google told me that the digital part meant Class-D amps, so far so good, but I've drawn a blank on the Bi-amp bit.

 

Now I know what Bi-amp means generally but these speakers are confusing:

 

on one hand RCF say they have 600W total RMS split 450W low freqs/150W hi freqs indicating a single amp working into a crossover then on to the speakers (I could hazard an uneducated guess that the crossover maybe could even be built as part the Class-D low-pass filter?),

 

but on the other hand they say the "integrated DSP" (which presumeably sits before the power amp) "manages crossover" which to me indicates that there are two separate power amps running the high and low end in parallel.

 

I'd be grateful if anyone could shed some light on this or point me in the direction of some literature, even if its non-specific Class-D practices for powering two speakers.

 

Thanks in advance

[Wilflet]

I'd interpret that as 2 channels of dsp/amplification and not a passive crossover.

Many more professional boxes (and certainly any of the active boxes you'd see on big shows like Meyer Mica/Milo or martain MLA) have multichannel amps or multiple amp modules, their DSP handels cross over before the amps- which is more efficient than having one big amp and a passive cross over- meaning for a given ammount of power you get more sound as your not just heating up the crossover.

[dbuckley]

Certainly other models of the RCF range with similar descriptions use a DSP crossover and two channels of amplification, so I'd say that Wilflet's interpretation is correct.

[DrV]

Nothing unusual about that config - the Mackie HD1531 for example, has a DSP then 3 class D amps

Dave

[dave1foot]

Thanks very much for your replies guys, very helpful!