Biwiring make any sense?


I am on the verge of adding new floor standers to my setup as my room has enlarged.  Options being considered are KEF R7 Metas and PSAudio Aspen FR10's.  Both have biwireable terminals, the KEF has a jumper switch  and the PS has jumper wires to bridge the terminals.  The other option from dealing with the jumpers is to biwire the speakers.  In this case I could run a banana and a spade off each output terminal.  Is this even worth considering?  Biamping is not something I'm interested in, as I already am running off an integrated amp.  I had a pair of BassZillas before, each one of which had 3 sets of terminals, the top 2 being biwired, but that's a different deal (I don't have those cables anymore).  Speaker comments would be welcome too.  Amp is PSAudio Spectral Strata w/150 watts into 4 ohms.

howardlee

Showing 8 responses by howardlee

Sure, if you just had one set of terminals.  Then you're basically giving yourself a fatter wire.  No harm there if you already have those wires, but if you're just starting out just buy the bigger wire!  If you have two sets of terminals, then you can avoid using jumpers, and maybe that's a positive.  Beamping seems like it makes more theoretical sense, but then you're getting into the old cost vs benefit thing, which is ok. 

Paul McGowan up above goes into detail on the matter, says it doesn't matter with regard to biamping, then  recommends biwiring!  Holy smoke!  I knew he liked wires.  Meanwhile, the rather overworked video referenced on Matthew's post up above really does a good job showing that biwiring is nonsense from an electrical standpoint.  I have to admit I am skeptical about those thin metal jumper straps often supplied.  The KEF's I'm looking at has that internal so you would have to guess that's real wiring.  Don't know about the PSAudio speaker.  I would like to hear some thoughts on those 2 speakers I was looking at before I release the $$$. As far as the biwiring goes, I think if you have the cabling already (I do), at least it wouldn't hurt.  If you don't I would spend the money elsewhere, maybe starting with better jumpers.  Thanks for the comments!

I dunno. My speaker cables are all silver but it seems like if you do that you're still depending on the wiring up to the output terminals on the amp (whatever that is). All I can figure is that my speaker cables are relatively thin compared to some so maybe doubling up on them might help...wouldn't hurt.  Copper vs silver is pretty much beyond my knowledge base!

Good advice, while auditioning speakers at a dealer can be fun but nothing like doing it in your home. Dealer quality is not quite the same as in the past. I used to have a part ownership in an audio store back in the 80's.  This is another way of saying it could make you crazy.  I've got a pair of KEF LS50's and like what they do, just a bigger room would benefit from something else.  I like the concept of the mid and upper range drivers originating from as close to one point as possible, but freeing them up from the low frequencies would be a good idea.  I've done that before on a much bigger scale. 

I've already got matching cables to do it so I might as well.  Don't see how it would degrade anything and going to more expensive cabling at this point would likely be unnecessary exploration. 30 years ago I'd have been into comparing things (and did, a lot) but you are correct.

The only thing a designer could do to facilitate his speakers being bewired would be to have a switch disabling internal jumpers.  As far as a circuit diagram would be concerned that wouldn't make any difference, just a physical connectivity difference.  Considering the jumper mechanism that "might" make some  sonic difference.  Does that make any sense?

The KEF R7 Metas I am looking at have a switch to select for biwiring versus not. One would assume this would mean some crossover compatibility or at least negating the jumpers but I really don’t have any good way of knowing. I have two cable sets (Clear Day) so I can run a comparison without buying anything new.