Bi-wire: is it worth it?

They have four terminals, and can be bi-wired.

Keep in mind that a vast majority of speakers "can be bi-wired." IMHO, very few have actually been designed for this, and for most of them, it is just "audio fashion."

A few years ago, while reading a Q&A section in a magazine, a manufacturer was asked why they removed the bi-wire terminals from the latest version of a speaker. Their answer was that it was originally done to be like other speakers, but they had finally determined through listing tests that bi-wire compromised coherency.

Al is spot-on, it's like a roll of the dice, maybe higher, maybe lower, or same as the previous roll.

I think everyone will agree that the factory jumpers between the terminals should be replaced when using single wire cables.

Bifwynne, getting custom jumpers and only using half of the Kimber 8PR would not be a fair test. A quick easy way to eliminate bi-wire is to install the jumpers with the 8PR connected as it is now. If you could use a short piece of quality wire to do this, that should be better than the straps. Nevertheless, that will eliminate bi-wire for a comparison.

"Coupled with a crossover designed specifically for bi-wiring. . ."

Very good point, Kjweisner, and as I said, just having multiple connections does not mean this is true. There are some, like Vandersteen, that specifically design for bi-wire, some that do single wire connections only, and others that just include the extra connections.

Nevertheless, as in many cases, Al's answer is the best.

You just have to try it, and see what it does for you, but don't get caught up in to thinking a difference is better as I did. Initially, I was on board with it, however, for some reason, always had the desire to make a change. I tried to supress this feeling, thinking it was just "wanting to upgrade" and then I came across this article.

http://www.sonicdesign.se/biwire.html

It described exactly what I was hearing, so I changed to single wire with jumpers of the same wire and was much happier.

I would also be interested in the "3/5 configuration", as I have a friend that uses 8TC, and he always wants to try something different. I assume it means to separate the 8 conductors of each positive and negative leg into 3 and 5 rather than 4 and 4, and then use 5 for the bass and 3 for the treble.

BTW, Bifwynne, did you have any thoughts on my suggestion on how to eliminate bi-wire in your setup?

One thing for sure, bi-wiring is more expensive, and IMHO, anyone in the business to sell cables would be an advocate for everyone to "buy-wire" :-)