Best bi-wire speaker cables under $1000


I have a Bryston 4BST amp, Bryston BP 25 preamp and I am looking to upgrade my Monster speaker cable. I do not even know where to start these days. My main listening is vocals, specifically female and jazz. Any ideas out there in the Audio world? Your input is greatly appreciated.

Bryan Hodges
bryanhod

Showing 5 responses by sean

If you are going to bi-wire, use separate cables for top and bottom, not cables that are internally bi-wired. This is just my opinion.

Rather than making a suggestion, why not let us know what you think your system lacks right now with the Monster's and that may give us a better idea as to what may be more suitable. We can all share what cables we personally like but helping you find cables that you like would be the main goal of this thread : ) Sean
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Voodoo: I would pull the second set of speaker cables off of the speakers and take measurements with a single cable and jumpers hooked up. You can then hook things back up and take another set of readings with the complete bi-wire arrangement. I sincerely doubt that you'll see any major differences.

Other than that, it sounds like you might be running into some form of cancellation from room nodes. The spacing between 800 Hz and 2600 Hz almost equals a primary and a third harmonic, so that could be coming into play. Then again, you might have a node at 800 Hz and the 2600 Hz drop could be crossover related. Too many variables without knowing any of the specifics.

As to the RS meter, none of them are real accurate in stock form. I know nothing about the digital meter, as i've never used it or read about it, but you can probably find out how to correct a lot of the deficiencies of this unit at Eric Wallin's DIY Audio Website. Sean
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Audioengr: your comment "The crossover was designed to have identical signals at both the woofer and tweeter input circuits" would only apply to a speaker that offered bi-wiring as an "after the fact" attempt at marketing features. The above would not apply to a product that was designed for truly optimized performance under optimized conditions. Whether or not the mass majority of bi-wirable speakers are of this nature would be another matter. I just wanted to point this out for future reference.

As a side note, a crossover network is nothing more than a voltage dividing network based upon frequency. As such, minimizing the amount of stress placed upon any individual component by removing some of the signal that it might have to pass would typically be considered a "good thing". I am talking about both thermal and saturation factors here. I can see no technical drawback to "true" bi-wiring so long as the signals presented to both the top and bottom section of the speaker are in phase with each other and the total series resistance of both cables remains equal to or less than a single cable.

As always, i would love to compare notes on the subject with those that have varying points of view so as to widen my grasp of the subject. Sean
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PS... Does anyone know what the first ( one cabinet ) speaker was to make use of multiple binding posts, specifically for the use of bi-amping or bi-wiring ? I have my ideas, but i'd like to see if anyone else has another answer.
Capeguy: I don't want to make it sound like i was challenging Audioengr or anything like that. What i was trying to say is that there are different design approaches and that nobody can design a product that will work universally well when dealing with all of the variables that one can run into. As such, knowing what variables apply to your specific situation will typically give you further insight as to where to look and how best to spend your money. You were smart to call B&W and find out their thoughts on the subject, as they "should" ( not necessarily always the case with every manufacturer ) be familiar enough with their own product to know how to get it to perform optimally.

Other than that, people do hear differently and have different tastes. It is quite possible that even though a product was designed for use in a specific manner, one may find that they like a slightly different presentation than what the designer had in mind for that product. If you can take that product and find a way to make it work to suite your needs / personal preferences, that is great too. So long as one enjoys the music and their system, that is all that matters : )

As a side note, i'd just like to remind people that many of my posts are based on "theoretically perfect audio reproduction" and trying to achieve that with the least amount of compromises. Whether or not one strives to achieve that ( i do ) or can afford the "ultimate system" ( i can't ) is another story. Most of my posts should be taken as food for thought and information to compare with others' points of view. You will have to decide for yourself what you think will work best for your individual application and go from there. Nobody can tell you what you like or can hear better than yourself. Sean
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Depending on the design of the speaker, the individual cables used and how the amplifier loads into the various combos, i wouldn't say it was impossible.

I'm guessing that this is what you experienced when you tried bi-wiring with no other changes being made at the same time ? Sean
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