@rsjm80 - speakers with BI-wire terminals have a common flaw - that little jumper that connects the two sets of terminals.

• Generally, that are not made from the best matereal - e.g. copper alloy with gold plating
  • so removing them in favour of biwiring will probably sound a little better
• they are a poor design
  • you might think being shorter they would provide the best sound
  • a friend performed several tests and found that a 40 inch solid OCC copper wire jumper provided the best sound

I can vouch for this - my own bi-wire speakers sounded much better with a single run of cables from the amp to the speaker. with a 40 Inch jumper in place of the little metal plates

The sound was more precise imaging, improved clarity and better bass response

I can only summize the the improvements were due having a less complex circui compared to the bi-wire option

• but this may not be the case for all amp/speaker combos
• amplifier design is complex and performance varies dependent on the load presented to that amp
  • using two sets of cables changes that load and hence performance will sound different, but not necessarily better

The other factor is the cables you are using

• they have a defined resistance, capacitance and inductance
• using a second set of cables will impact the way in which those combined metrics of using two sets of cables will appear to the amp, which in turn impacts overall performance

As you can see, it gets complicated very quickly.

I’m a fan of the KISS approach - so for me, connecting bi-wireable speakers...

• it’s one set of cables with a high quality jumper having high quality connectors
  • I favour KLE Innovations Banana plugs because they are designed such that two sets of wires can be connected at the speaker terminals

Hope that helps

Regards - Steve

Not completely sure what you mean by separate verses internal.  If you mean that the cables are separated by a distance of several inches then it would be to reduce coupling from the signal in one cable pair into the other cable pair.  I think b-wiring is most beneficial when the speaker has two pairs of terminals, one pair for the upper frequencies and one pair for the lower frequencies.  In this case, the current flowing through the cable dedicated to the low frequency speaker terminals will create an electric field around the cable but due to the seperation, it will not couple (or couple to a lesser degree) into the cable dedicated to the high frequencies.  There was good article on this topic, I think from the Vandersteen speaker company.  I just biwired and felt like there was an improvement, but so hard to tell plus it could be an amp breaking in.  

I think the biggest benefit of bi-wiring is the heavier gauge, but all else being equal in gauge if I can get a better quality cable with an internally bi-wired cable for the same price as a lower quality externally bi-wired cable I’d definitely go for the former.

Bi-Wiring and Bi-Amping Explained see here!

Mike

It doubles the gauge of the wire, which can have some benefit. Other benefits are more controversial. Some theories claim that the wires each carry separate frequency ranges due to the capacitance and inductance of the crossover parts. Whether it’s audible is a variable, as each system and situation is unique. It’s always best to give it a try and see what you think on your system.