Benefits and Drawbacks to Shotgun Speaker Cables

This is a term that i've heard used with various meanings. Can someone please explain what the "accepted" meaning of "shotgun cables" is ?

I've been told that "shotgunning" cables is when you take all of the conductors ( pos and neg ) of one speaker cable and use them for one polarity and then use all of the conductors of an identical cable for the other polarity. You then have two individual but identical "barrels" side by side ( ala a shotgun ) with twice the "firepower" ( gauge ) that you would normally have by splitting the conductors of one cable between polarities.

Is this correct or am i off in left field on this one ??? Sean
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Now that we've got that cleared up, running cables in shotgun fashion will DRASTICALLY alter their electrical characteristics. Any "special geometry" between the positive and negative conductors in the original design that was included to increase cable bandwidth ( such as braiding, twisting, etc...) is effectively negated when doing this. Inductance will go WAY up and series resistance should be reduced by half. In effect, we have doubled the gauge of conductors and increased the dielectric gap between the two polarities by a massive amount.

Since the resistance is lowered ( this is a good thing ), you might have better control over the drivers that produce the most reflected EMF ( electromotive force aka "voltage ) like woofers, etc... However, the increased inductance will produce greater roll-off and veiling of details as frequency rises. Dielectric absorption is also increased, as you've got twice as much insulator / cable jacket to work with.

The bottom line is that you'll probably experience warmer, tighter and more robust low frequency response with a softening of upper mids and treble response. One could somewhat "fine tune" the tonal balance of an arrangement like this by playing with the spacing or "gap" between the positive and negative cables. Some have used this to "smooth out" problems with digital glare or sibilance with great results.

Obviously, some speaker / amp / wire combo's would respond differently than others depending on the complex impedance that resulted. Results WILL vary from system to system and would be strictly a matter of personal taste. Sean
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Buckingham, as i mentioned, every system can react differently. There are SO many variables with different cable geometries and gauges, etc... My comments were based on "generic" standards as to what "should" happen in "theory". I have learned enough to know that not everything follows theory though, so it is quite possible that you have stumbled across a killer combo.

I have some interconnects that are higher in capacitance than many other designs. While this typically results in high frequency softening and roll off, many that have used them have commented that treble sounds much more focused and detailed with greater depth to the soundstage. While i would agree with their comments in many situations, i know that the cables achieve these results by softening some of the upper midrange ( i.e. "grain and glare" ) that is present in many SS systems. By getting rid of what is normally distracting or fatiguing, it is easier to concentrate on what is left. Hence the "greater detail and focus" and smoother overall sound. The "greater depth" is also "psycho-acoustic" in the fact that when you remove upper harmonics of instruments and voices, they appear to be further away or "deeper" in the recorded presentation. Sean
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Buckingham, that was a valiant attempt at artwork and being helpful. Glad to see that i'm not the only "scribbler" out there : )

I agree with Maxgain about this still not clearly showing what we are talking about. One would almost need a color coded drawing to fully clarify things.

The easiest way that i can think to explain this is to use a double barrelled shotgun as an example. Think of a double barrelled "side by side" shotgun ( not an "over and under ) design. You have your right barrel ( call this the positive wire ) and the left barrel ( the negative ). Instead of having the two barrels used individually for each polarity ( + and - ), they are tied together at each end. In effect, you know have one barrel that is twice as big. Since you only have one conductor to "shoot" the signal from the amp to the speaker ( we'll call this one positive ), you now need an identical yet seperate "shotgun" ( cable ) to make up the necessary negative lead. In effect, you now have four smaller wires acting as two bigger wires.

While a similar effect can be achieved in a multi strand or "internal bi-wire" cable due to the plethora of smaller wires in one bigger jacket , the main difference in "shotgunning" is that each polarity ( + & - ) are completely seperated from each other within their own jackets. They also have an air gap between the two polarities.

That large air gap is what increases the inductance of the cable. The closer the cables are brought together, the lower the inductance would be. That is why cables like Goertz, which are flat strips of copper or aluminum sandwiched as close together as possible, are very high in capacitance and very low in inductance. Zip cord is higher in inductance because of the bigger gap / thicker insulator between the two polarities. Sean
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You folks are right. It can become pretty confusing. I can see how Craig and Swampwalker could see the two seperate bi-wiring cables as being a "shotgun" configuration. While I have never been a fan of internal bi-wiring, that is not to say that it might not work out for some folks. Personally, i just don't see the benefits to splitting the signal within the same cable jacket. Sean
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Regardless of who said it, i don't think that bi-wiring comes even REMOTELY close to actively bi-amping. The results of bypassing passive crossover networks and going "direct drive" is pretty staggering to say the least. Notice the key word here is "actively". One can achieve beneficial results "passively" bi-amping if you bandwidth limit the input to each amp using something along the lines of "F-mods", etc...

When my brother went from passively quad-amping with passive crossovers at the speakers to actively quad-amping, the results were staggering to say the least. The difference was SO drastic, I would have swore that we were listening to a COMPLETELY different system. Needless to say, he was tickled to death with the results. Sean
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