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How do you turn the passive subwoofer section of an NHT tower speaker into a fully adjustable pow-
ered subwoofer? How do you customize low frequency balance for any room? How do you
increase the dynamics and power handling of your speakers? Take advantage of NHT'S outboard
subwoofer amplifiers to biamplily any NHT tower speaker!
Biamplification is the use of two separate amplifiers, one to power the low frequency (subwoofe0 dri-
vers and one to power the upper lrequency (midrange / tweeter) drivers The advantages of biampli-
fication include reduced distortion, increased dynamic range and power output. since both ampli-
fiers are spared the task of reproducing the entire frequency range, both are able to concentrate all
of their power toward a specific lrequency range. When the speakers are driven to highly elevated
listening levels, it is likely the subwoofer amplifier will clip first, but this distortion will be isolated from
the upper frequency ranges because they are amplified separately.
Biamplifying tower speakers with the NHT subwoofer amplifiers results in added benelits, as it trans-
forms th;ir-built-in subwoofer sections into fully adjustable powered subwoofers. Using the SA-2 or
SA-3's onboard bass tuning functions, the user can fine-tune a tower loudspeaker's
bass response
for a specific listening environment. For example, if the speakers are used in a room that tends to
under-emphasize
or bver-emphasize
low freqUencies,
it is possible to increase or decrease the vol-
ume level of the subwoofer sections independently
of the upper driver sections, Additionally,
the
subwoofer amplifier's low-pass crossover allows the user to adjust the rollotf of low frequencies to
the subwoofer sections of the speakers, for further fine{uning of low- to mid-bass frequencies.
Towers may be biamplified monaurally using a single subwoofer amplifier (her6alter called "sA') and
a full-range main (stereo) amplifier, or biamplified in stereo using two sA's and a main amplifier.
Additiona'ily,
the towers may be biamplified either in series or in parallel. Wired in series (Method
#1), the m;in amplifier receives a filtered line-level signal via the high-pass output from the SA
Wiied in parallel (Method #2), both the main amplifier and the SA receive full-range signals directly
from the preamplifier. The main amplifier may be a stand-alone stereo unit, dual monoblocks, or the
amplifier section of an integrated amplifier or fuV receiver that teatures "Pre-Out" and "Main-ln"
lacKs.
All NHT tower loudspeakers are designed with dual sets of binding posts to allow for biamplification.
The following chart provides guidelines for the optimal biamplification
configuration
for any NHT
tower speaker. In all cases, two sA's may be substituted for one to provide enhanced performance.
MODEL
SUB, AMP
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