Hello all. I have a pair of Panasonic SB-PM18 Bi-amped speakers. I've never used speakers like these before and am not sure how to hook them up. The amp I use doesn't have two outputs for each channel. Anything else I can do, besides getting a new amp? Thanks very much.
I saw a pic of the model you mentioned on e-bay. That was the only pic I could find of them. Do they have speaker wire coming out of the back of them, or are there binding posts or clips to put wire into them?
If they are bi-ampable (judging what I saw on the pic they weren't) they need to have two sets of speaker inputs on them. If they do, let me know and I'll help you out.
Ugh. Those speakers come from a Panasonic SC-18 minisystem which does bi-amp them. I know only because about 5 years ago when I was looking for a minisystem I checked out this one...nice looking and all but the sound quality was horrible when I brought my own CDs in to test it out with.
The salesguy said that I wouldn't be able to hook up normal speakers to the unit, which killed the deal for me too since minisystem speakers are always absolute crap IME. (At that time I was a total noob and didn't know about bi-ampable speakers like the Ascends, Axioms, or even Wharfedales.)
Anyways to make a long story short Jason, you'd need either two separate amps or a bi-ampable receiver like some of the Pioneer Elite units but if you can afford either of those I'm sure you wouldn't even be looking at these speakers to begin with.
My advice is start saving up for some real speakers...even the $100/pair Polk R15s will be far better than these. (Fry's often sells them for $50 a pair actually.)
You don't have extra speaker outs on your amp, so you would have to get another amp. If you try cob-jobbing it you will most likely damage either the amp or speakers, or both.
Not to bash your speakers, but instead of buying another amp, you should probably put that money towards new speakers. I have no idea what your financial situation, applications, and preferences are like, so I can't give an educated suggestion on that.
Shitty speakers are sometimes very useful, especially for checking mixes. If people are buying systems with these speakers, I want to hear what they're hearing...
