Hello Art ... I have not done an A,B test with Cardas Biwire to single wire and jumper , but I did with Transparent . The difference was very very slight , In the end I picked the single wire route . Can't say for sure the single wire was better sounding , but it was at least as good . The biwire route was about $1500. more , and if I ever changed to a single wired only speaker , I would not have to purchase new cables . Hope this helps a bit . |
I am using Cardas GR with jumpers as I didn't want the expense and complexity of two cables and didn't seen any Cardas biwire used when I was shopping. Has worked fine with Cardas jumpers [the smaller ones]. I am now trying out VH Audio 14 gauge silver wire as jumpers, first impression is that it is even better. The jumper is more important than many people, including some manufactures, seem to think. |
Art,
You still running your LSA's? |
Oh, sorry, I just reread your post... Silverlines, now, I see. |
LSA 1's are in the home theatre. It is FANTASTIC. I suppose it's the voicing, plus the fact that they are not quite as revealing as the LSA Statements or Silverline 17.5, but they are a match made in heaven with my Marantz AV receiver. Not as detailed as my Cary Silverline rig but very beautiful at reproducing music. I'm using LSA standard center, which is of course an excellent match (their better center speaker I think). However the center speaker is very large, so it's a bit awkward and took me time to find a suitable piece of furniture to hold my AV system including the center.
BTW I recently started using the new $99 Apple TV to stream audio from iTunes on my Mac to the HT and use the built-in Marantz DAC. Again, it sounds very lovely, likely due to the slight forgiving quality of the LSA Standard (either that or just the speaker voicing.).
Art |
Stanwal, yes I've tried changing jumpers on a variety of speakers and the differences are shocking. It is bizarre that expensive speaker ship with such cheap jumpers that mask their quality.
Currently I'm running single wire to tweeter and jumper to mid/woofer, which I've never found to be the better combination in the past, but with Cardas Golden Ref powerful bass and a little reticence on top, it seems best.
I just read an article on the Empirical Audio site about biwire shotgun vs single wire. He suggests that a substantial effect comes from the differing impedences of the tweeter and woofer and this accounts for a lot of the unpredicability of the sonic effect of the change.
Someone else on the net suggested that if you hear substantial changes jumpering tweeter to woofer versus woofer to tweeter,then that is an indication that internal biwire or shotgun would have a substantial impact on the sound. Better? Quien sabe. |
After numerous speaker wire experimenting I've come to the conclusion that running my bi wired Ref 3A Grand Veenas with a one metre single run of Cardas Golden Hex 5C and using the Ref 3A solid core jumpers is the best solution so far.
I should add that I run the speaker wires in the diagonal wiring scheme, which also sounds better than any of the other options using jumpers. |
Lacee, does diagonol mean:
Run a wire to, say, upper tweeter on left. Jumper that tweeter to midwoofer on left. run the other wire OUT of the midwoofer. Then do the same on other side?
I've never tried, that, worrying about damaging something or confusing impedences at the amp end (presumably the tweeter and midwoofer have different impedences). But this is just my novice-at-electronics theory...
Art |
I took it to mean putting one at the top and one at the bottom, i.e., hot to tweeter hot and ground to bass ground or vice versa. I seem to remember trying this sometime in the past but forget how it worked; let us know what you mean. I am using a very cheap but really surprisingly effective jumper just now, 10 gauge solid copper. As an audiophile I should say that it is 9 9s copper imported from the East at great expense but it is actually Romex, works great on my tri wire S 100s. |
Yes, that "diagnol" sounds right. I've read about people doing that successfully.
I've tried making cheap jumpers and never had any luck with them - which surprises me a lot. Never tried Romex though.
Art |
It wasn't bad but when I went back to my Cardas jumpers [ $80 each pair] it was a definite improvement; but the Romex was better than the ones you usually get with most speakers. Another attempt to go cheap fails. The Spendor S 100s have provision for tri wiring. The best arrangement I have found for them so far is the main cable to the treble posts, putting spade jumpers between the bass and midrange, and then connecting bananas from the treble post to the bass post, so the midrange gets the signal last. Not what I expected but seems to work; another thing that surprises me is that ON MY SPEAKERS connecting to the bass posts and going to the treble last seems to give more high end than going to the treble first; too much in fact. |
By the way great cables these Cardas Golden Reference .. I'm enjoying them (single wire) between Parasound Halo JC1's and Thiel CS 2.4 and I'm finding them a bit forward than my previous Analysis Plus Big Silver Ovals but with better clean highs and mids and a super tuneful bass I'm starting to love since I missed it so tuneful with Silver Ovals.
Happy New Year to everyOne! |
Recently Cardas has stated on their website that you will get better results using a single wire with good quality jumpers as opposed to an internal bi-wire. Of course they do not hesitate to mention that a full shotgun bi-wire would be the best solution.
Shunyata agree and no longer make or sell internal bi-wire speaker cables. |
