Best speaker wiring

number 5 is the best

I believe Focal, who manufacture some very fine speakers, has the understanding that it does not make a difference. From the Focal site:

"BI-WIRING STEREO LOUDSPEAKERS

Bi-wiring has now been phased out on all Focal speakers. Rather than investing in a function that has become unnecessary (our OPC filters have been designed to do away with bi-wiring), we opted to use our new top of the range cast-moulded, insulated, ribbed terminals to ensure a tight clamping torque."

In fact I use Focal in my entertainment room [Video enjoyment] and the speaker only have on set of wire connections. Just get a decent set of wires

Part of the answer would be based on the binding posts on the back of your amp. I would, and have bought the internally bi-wired with two going into four at the speaker.

I'm sorry but the suggestion of using zipcord is just stupid. If you don't care how your system sounds why would you buy anything other than a boombox. I don't know who would benefit from such a foolish suggestion???

I have used all kinds of speaker cable including zipcord (a long time ago) and have found speaker cable and good interconnect to be one of the cheapest upgrades possible regardless of the price of the better cables. It would cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars to match the improvement of cables if you were to buy electronics instead.

Listen to lots of cables and buy the best one you can afford, or justify.

Thanks for your ideas/suggestions/opinions.

It seems to me there is no absolute in wiring, and anything could be good or bad depending upon your components and/or your ears. And, why are people concerning about wiring?

Unfortunitely, the only way for you to know for sure is to try it yourself.
Each method you mention could be the best or worst depending on what speakers, what cables, what jumpers if you don't biwire, what amplifier, your hearing, yada yada yada.

You can also biwire, etc, using a different type/brand of cable for the high and low frequency terminals.

If you don't biwire, definitely get rid of the stock jumpers they give you with the speakers. Most (not all) people who use jumpers, have more luck putting the cables to the high frequency terminals, with the jumpers going to the low frequency terminal. (Try it both ways.)

This should keep you busy for about a month or more!

I would agree that you should lose that jumper between the terminals, replacing it with power bridges or not depending on the biwiring choice. I have some speakers that sound better with two runs of cable and some that don't. For the speakers that sound beter with two runs, I haven't found any improvement over 2 at the amp end and 4 at the speakers.

I wouldn't get too caught up in all the cable hullaballoo. To keep it simple, I'd suggest a set of the WBT power bridges to link the high and low binding posts, and then run a pair of "single-wired" (one pair of connectors on each end) cables. I prefer the WBT midline banana plugs for this purpose.

As far as the type of cable, I really think 12 AWG copper "zip cord", which you can get at your local home supply store is fine. Should be about 50 cents a foot, and sounds great. If you can find larger gauge, then that would be even better.