Biwire questions - Best cable for


New pair of B&W Nautilus 804. Krell KAV 250a and Lexicon DC-2 pre. Suggestions for biwire speaker cable for about $300? I need 20ft cables (or slightly longer). If I need to spend more, I will, but I'd like to spend no more than 3-400 bucks. Thanks all! Appreciate your help!
bazmataz

Showing 2 responses by fam124

I have good news for you. There seems to be no good reason whatsoever to bi-wire! I just received my latest edition of the Bound for Sound report in which its head honcho, Martin De Wulf, has published an article entitled, "Down With Bi-Wiring." Apparently, Marty has had a recent revelation and essentially contends that the very things bi-wiring is purported to accomplish are wholly negated by the fact that the wires nevertheless come together at the speaker terminals. Hence, he says, "...what's the difference if they come together at the back of your amp, or just inside the loudspeaker? Nothing! And don't think that you are accomplishing something with four sets of terminals on the back of the amplifier. They're all connected once they get inside the amp---No Advantage!" He further states, "...there was a time when I was on the bi-wire bandwagon. I stuck it out because of the terrible performance when the ubiquitous brass plated jumpers were used to tie the terminals together. Of course bi-wiring sounded good in comparison to those wretched things." He points out for those who are unaware, that the solution is a simple one. Typically, speakers have a plastic cup that houses the speaker terminals. Simply remove the screws securing it to the speakers, unhook one set of the internal cables and then hook them up to the other set, close it all back up, and that's it. He concludes that he's started to do some A/B testing (just 3 sets of speakers so far) and has yet to hear a pair of speakers that sounded better bi-wired. ---------------------By coincidence, (although I too have been bi-wiring for ages) I've recently been wondering about/questioning the whole reasoning behind bi-wiring myself. Reading Marty's article therefore spurred me into immediate action---performing the minor "surgery" on a pair of Stratus Gold i's. And I have to say, the results are truly amazing. That ridiculously simple mod, in conjunction with a SINGLE cable run yielded results that I would quantify as being better that a component upgrade. But please don't take my word for it. I expect there will be MANY a nay-sayer, but why not just try it out for yourself. You may find your results are worse/better/nil. The one thing that is for certain though, is that there is absolutely NOTHING to loose! If you are lucky, you might just happen to find you can afford to buy yourself a single-run of speaker cable that is TWICE as good as what you thought you'd have to spend to get a bi-wire pair. Good Listening!
With all due respect to you, Megasam, Martin DeWulf also points out in his article, (and I tend to think he's correct) that in most cases, the speaker manufacturers have jumped on the whole bi-amp bandwagon/hysteria solely because they felt they had to, lest they be perceived as being behind the times---hence, diminished sales. BTW, when I get a chance, I will in fact contact Paul Barton and post and/or email you as to the result.