Biwire posts; how to connect?

I've heard people swear by installing one conductor on the HF and one on the LF in a diagonal pattern and then using the jumpers. I guess the only right answer is: Try them on the LF, then on the HF, then diagonal, and then diagonal reversed and pick the configuration you believe sounds better. You can't hurt the speakers, you'll be tweaking all night, and it won't cost you a penny. BTW, most aftermarket jumpers are way better than what the factory provides. I have Quads 21L's and the difference when bi-wired is quite noticeable (for the better).

Funny, the manuals for the 683, the 703, and even the discontinued 603 showed the wires going to the LOW LF posts. Only the 803 manual showed the connections to MID-HI ????? Which begs my newbie question ... does it matter? Any improvement in high/low freq. either way?

I'm not sure which B&Ws you have, but I'd get a more powerful amp. I believe yours is 50 wpc. I'd stay away from Adcom with those speakers.

Some speaker manufacturers use high quality jumpers between the high and low freq. posts, others skimp there. If the jumpers are chintzy- your sound will suffer and you would be better served by making the connection with stripped speaker cable.

Not to beat a dead horse, but if someone can explain why it is better to use jumpers instead of just running the bare wire all the way through to both posts, I would be interested to hear it. Not so much for arguments sake, but I am sincerely curious. I have little to no electronic background, but it seems like a no-brainer.

Thanks all. I'll leave the jumpers in place and wire to the HF posts.
Markphd, thanks for the elaborate explanation of biwiring. I do understand it and believe it works, but for the time being I'm just single wiring with my current amp (NAD c320).

On the other hand, if you have bi-wireable speakers, but you just want to single wire, then you do what the other posters said. Keep the jumpers in place and connect the single speaker cable to the HF posts.

As I re-read your post, I'm not quite sure which alternative you were asking about, i.e. single wire to bi-wireable speakers or bi-wire to bi-wireable speakers.

Anyway, you have both answers now.

You're not bi-wiring if the jumpers are connected. You need two two-conductor cables per speaker. The first two-conductor cable goes to the HF posts of speaker number one. The second two-conductor cable goes to the LF posts of speaker number one. Repeat for speaker number two with two more speaker cables. The jumpers between the HF and LF posts are removed.

Now there's the amp end to worry about. You have four conductors (i.e. two two-conductor speaker cables) for each speaker.

If your amp has two pairs of speaker outputs per speaker(i.e. two black and two red per speaker), then the two conductors in each the two speaker cables per speaker (i.e. four conductors in total) all have a place to plug in to.

If your amp only has one pair of speaker outputs per speaker (i.e. one black and one red per speaker), then what do you do with only two amp outputs per speaker but four wires per speaker? ...You have to strip the ends of the speaker cables and crimp or solder the two speaker cables together, (i.e. red to red and black to black) Now you can terminate with a single banana plug (or spade) and plug into the amp as if it were a single speaker cable.

The purpose of bi-wiring is to minimize the interaction between HF and LF by separating them as much as possible. That's why the jumpers between the HF and LF binding posts are removed and why two cables are used.

The HF and LF signals are still mixed at the amp end of course (unless you are using an active crossover). The question is then asked: "How do the HF and LF frequencies "know" which wire to take?" The answer is they don't "know" anything. If you pour a bucket of water on a hill, how does the water "know" it should go downhill rather than uphill? It doesn't "know" anything. It simply chooses the path of least resistance, i.e. downhill. Similarly, the signal simply chooses the path of least resistance. The signal coming from the amp "sees" a wire with a high pass filter in the speaker crossover and a wire with a low pass filter in the speaker crossover. It simply "chooses" the wire that is easier to travel down. It's not a perfect separation since the speaker crossover is not perfect. That's why active crossovers are better, because you get a precise separation. However, if you have the right system, bi-wiring can produce a noticeable benefit.

Hi, I would run the stripped wire all the way through to both posts. On the other hand, I would recommend buying a double run of Speltz Anti-Cables.

As Bar81 already said, I totally agree: connect the cables on the HF post.

You connect the speaker cables to the HF posts and then jumper down to the LF and if you have 803D or above it would be a good idea to get aftermarket jumpers as the stock ones aren't particularly good.