You shouldn't have any problem/audible degradation at all, as long as you can assure a snug connection at the post(that won't loosen). Personally- I'd mate the separated conductors back into one spade or banana(WBT) on the speaker end. |
I compared the exact same speaker cables (Blue Circle BC92 with Cardus spades), one bi-wire, the other single.
I could not tell the difference. |
You'll be fine; I'm doing the same. |
That's what I'm doing, highs/bananas and lows/spades. |
I thought his speakers were single wire+-..........
Will it affect the sound......? I guess not , but then I have never
used bi- wire cable with single terminated speakers. |
There is some confusion in the answers posted.
I am referring to identical cables; one pair with 2 spades on both ends; and another pair with 2 spades on one end and 4 spades on the other.
I just doubled up the spades on the same speaker terminal with the bi-wire pair. No audible difference. |
Sugarbrie- I was stating that I (personally) would remove the four spades from the speaker end of the cables, mate the conductors and install only two spades or bananas. This would lessen the chances of the post loosening from cable vibrations(through the extra spade/cable spread), and eliminate a connection. I believe Bar81 missed my point. Is this the confusion you cited? |
If you connect the wires together at both ends (amp and speaker binding post) then technically this is so little different from a thicker gauge of wire as to be of dubious benefit = think about it => you are shorted at both ends so the signal must be the same at both ends the only difference is a lower path of resistance between the two points as you have presumably more wire thickness between the two shorted points.
Bi-wiring works when the speaker allows separation between woofer and tweeter - this means a crossover that is designed to allow bi-wiring. In this case you can use a separate amp to drive each cable and reduce IMD distortion from driving 20 to 20Khz with one beleaguered amp (especially the high current demands of a woofer). Remember that an amps life is much easier if you restrict its load and the frequency range that it needs to cover.
Bi-wring also works well with bi-amping as in a setup using active crossovers => this will probably give the most benefit as the amp does not have to deal with driving a passive crossover so life gets even easier for the amp. |
Thanks for the responses. Just to clarify a few things that led to confusion:
The pair of cables I have in mind has 2 spades on one end (amp) and 4 spades on the other (speaker). I will double up the tweeter and woofer + spades to connect them with the single + binding post of the speaker (and accordingly for the -).
In doing so, I am not trying to achieve bi-wiring benefits with a speaker that sports a single wiring terminal. I'm aware that there can be no separation of the signal.
The thing is I would like to try these particular cables, that happen to be available as a bi-wiring pair only, in my system in a single wiring mode but I'd like to save the cost of having them redone for the moment (the latter would be the better thing to do, surely)
I was just wary of negative effects that anyone might have experienced to be a show-stopper.
Thanks for any additional thoughts. |
I was just wary of negative effects that anyone might have experienced to be a show-stopper.
Absolutely no negative effects. You can wire this up and it will work great provided you don't mix +/- or red/black on the four spades at the speaker end (which could short out your amp if you are not careful). |
.. KarelFD Quote: In doing so, I am not trying to achieve bi-wiring benefits with a speaker that sports a single wiring terminal. I'm aware that there can be no separation of the signal. (end Quote)
Using bi-wire cables on a speaker with one pair of terminals, does not give you bi-wire benefits.
On bi-wireable speakers the highs (tweeter) and low (woofer) terminals are completely separate inside and outside the speaker. If you only connected cables to one set of terminals, the other speaker driver would not operate; it is not getting any signal. Some manufacturers do it because there is sometimes a benefit in how the crossover works when the two speaker drivers are separate. There are actually Tri-wire 3-way speakers out there as well.
Some people goes as far as to customize the sound further by using different brand/type speaker cables on the higher and lower terminals on bi-wire speakers. Others don't care and just use the jumpers that come with the speakers, allowing you do use a regular pair of cables. |
if your amp has 2 sets of binding posts, you can just reverse the cable. |
There was no confusion, it doesn't matter if you double up spades or otherwise, there's zero difference over a SC run. Bottom line, go ahead and enjoy.
btw, above I was talking about the highs and lows for the bi-wire cables I have, the speakers (Focal Alto Utopia Be) have a single pair of binding posts. |
Bananas degrade the sound |
I quite agree - I never liked the Bananas. |
Gulp ..., the Truth about cable sound has been revealed. Talk about skin effect and stuff, whilst all the time it's really the Bananas romping through our systems, chuting down the silver cable cores :-o
Apart from which, thanks for all your input guys. |
