Depends in large part on the cable. My personal feeling is that spending a lot on one really good biwire cable is better than two lesser cables because good biwire cables do more than just split all the wires at the end. My best suggestion is go to www.cardas.com and look at there informational section and see what they have to say. The only time that I really thing using two sets of wires makes sense is if you are using two amps. Then it is hard to avoid. My other suggestion is go to the audio shop where you buy your gear and try listening to the two different setups. |
First you should always bi-wire if speakers have that capability, even if you have only one amp with one set of 5-way posts, use spades for one pair and bannanas for other. Internal bi-wire is the most cost effective and better than single wire, but it is a compromise to save money. High and low frequencies cannot be completely isolated in a single cable. If money is no object double runs are preferable to internal bi-wire, you can reduce the cost of double runs by using highest quality cable for high freq dirvers and lower quality cable for bass drivers, as bass is never bright and will have less detail loss. (cables must be same design family to do this) For example use AQ Clear for high freq and AQ Midnight for bass........regards Sam |
Your wasting your money if you buy 2-sets of cables, with 4 ends on each. Bi-wiring just lowers the resistance level on the wire and the amp. You can go to a 1 size bigger cable and achieve the same results. The best way is to bi-amp, even if you have to go down a size in amp. Horizontal or vertical. Then you can HEAR the DIFFERENCE!!!!! |
The guys ahead of me are pretty much correct.If the speaker has bi wire capability,do so.If you can't afford bi wire of a high quality,get one run (keep it as short as you can)for now;later pick up the second run of the same stuf and use the jumpers for now. Stay away from Banana pins.The contact area will be less.and even locking bananas can't be gotten as tight as spades.They are for dealers who have to change equiptment 5 times a day.Try to call your speaker mfg.give him your paticulars Look for his #in the review of any of his brand, in the mags. Some equiptment is sensitive to the length of the run.My first "high end"speaker wire purchase tought me one of the many lessons I've learned the hard way.The dealer said how many feet do you need? He would have sold me 50feet if I could afford it.One at a time I got 10ft runs of Cardas Quadlink.Both runs cost a little over a thousand.I didn't know any better.Later after getting some knowledge,I got a 6ft run of tara labs master;well a single run of this "killed" the bi wire I had.And at only $650 I later got 6ft more.And yes the second run gave me even more.Reach your amp mfg.the same way. most of them are only to glad to talk to people who have bought their product.Almost never go against what the say.Got a story or two on that subject. Dealers fall all over themselves to get to people with the hunger,the money,and not much knowledge. this help any?? |
Thtman the "main" reason for bi-wire is not to lower resistance, but to reduce distortion in treble and midrange. The high freq cable no longer has to handle magnetic fields caused by the higher current needed to produce bass signal. This is also why double run is preferable to internal bi-wire as it better isolates high freq from distortion. Best of all worlds is bi-amp and bi-wire set-up. Avguy also makes good point that speaker cables should in general be kept reasonably short. |
Some, but not all, of the above replies are misleading. There are no hard and fast rules regarding bi-wiring. The best advice I can offer is to listen carefully, without preconceptions. For some speaker/wire/amp combinations, bi-wiring is clearly the way to go. For other combinations it's a waste of money. For what it's worth, in my system I bi-wire and use double runs of cable. |
I agree that biwiring is definately better. I even noticed definite improvement in biwiring speakers with only one tap. I have experimented with double runs, and single biwire runs, but never with the same cable in both versions. I ended up going with two separate single runs as I also have an amp that has two sets of speaker taps, I don't really know if it is a lot better than the biwired cable version though, it is a lot more expensive though. |
Thanks everyone for your responses. It sounds like double-runs are the way to go if you can afford it. I like the idea of the same brand for each run with a more expensive one for the mids/highs and lower priced one (if must be) for the bottom octaves. Thanks again......... |
Hello. Megasam above is correct. What happens when a speaker is able to be biwired but isn't is that the woofer, with it's bigger magnet and higher power requiremnts, tries to ram it's signal back down the tweeters throat, so to speak, something referred to as back EMF. This causes distortion. Biwire them, or better yet, if cost doesn't bother you, biamping is the best. Remember, however, that one good amp biwired will be better than two mediocre ones biamped. Experiment as much as you can, and good luck. |
Hi Willi; Vandersteen Audio strongly recommends biwiring their speakers with double runs of cable, and keeping cables short. And no, Vandersteen does not sell speaker cable. They don't recommend any particulat brand. I have followed their advice with excellent results. Cheers, Craig |
Bi-wire...Absolutely with separate runs..I agree with above about dealers being all over themselves and not in your best interests...Check on your particular speakers needs..some applications are better than others-PLEASE TRY FIRST and listen to what you want to hear-not what they want you to hear..SECOND-I believe in my own exhausted experience that one larger cable w/jumpers at twice the cost is not as good as a matching pair of lesser cables that balance out the speaker the way it was intended to be used..BUT you still need to spend $$$ to make this work properly...I know because I have tri-wire speakers and have tried single,double,and triple runs...DO FOR YOUR SPEAKER WHAT IT WAS INTENDED TO DO!!!! |
