Vandersteen is my favourite speaker and I have several pair. They do sound a lot better with a double biwire setup. More so than with any other speaker (I believe Vandersteen was the first one to use biwiring.) Even if you have to go with less expensive cables, it will still sound much better. Audioquest is a great choice. 2 separate runs of type 8 or cv8 will sound great with Vand. I would also, highly recommend not mixing cable type and use 2 pairs of exactly the same cable. Just to note, everything that I just mentioned above, I have actually done myself. (I didn't just read some magazine articles) I speak from actual experiance.
Does anyone use a different cable for the neg run?
I remembered that Richard Vandersteen liked to run two separate runs of speaker wire on his speakers, in a rather unconventional way.
Which is to sum the pos and neg at the pos amp end nand use the pos and neg to power the upper pos and lower pos taps in bi wired speakers.
The negative return run is the same, both ends summed at the amp, while the pos and neg run of this cable goes to the neg upper and lower speaker posts.
So you still need 4 runs of wire, but the wire isn't split into two at the upper posts or the lower speaker posts-one half pos, one half neg, as is the norm.
I tried this on my speakers,took out the jumpers and for the second runs of the neg returns I used 12 guage solid core romex.
The results were positive,and the increase in detail, less hash, and more rounded full body images has made a believer out of me.
I don't know if the DIY neg runs of solid core or just the doubling up of the Nordost as POS only signal wires is the reason for the improvemnt , but until I can try another pair of Nordost for the Neg returns, I'm sticking with this set up.
It's like I've made a major gear swap, and it cost me nothing.
I was wondering if others who use the Vandersteen bi wiring arrangement or one using disimilar wires for the neg return have anything to add to this?
Also I would appreciate any opinions about why this shouldn't work or that it is messing with the function of my amp or speakers .
Feel free to tell me this is a bad practise,but in the interim I am enjoying the best sound I've ever had from my system.
Which is to sum the pos and neg at the pos amp end nand use the pos and neg to power the upper pos and lower pos taps in bi wired speakers.
The negative return run is the same, both ends summed at the amp, while the pos and neg run of this cable goes to the neg upper and lower speaker posts.
So you still need 4 runs of wire, but the wire isn't split into two at the upper posts or the lower speaker posts-one half pos, one half neg, as is the norm.
I tried this on my speakers,took out the jumpers and for the second runs of the neg returns I used 12 guage solid core romex.
The results were positive,and the increase in detail, less hash, and more rounded full body images has made a believer out of me.
I don't know if the DIY neg runs of solid core or just the doubling up of the Nordost as POS only signal wires is the reason for the improvemnt , but until I can try another pair of Nordost for the Neg returns, I'm sticking with this set up.
It's like I've made a major gear swap, and it cost me nothing.
I was wondering if others who use the Vandersteen bi wiring arrangement or one using disimilar wires for the neg return have anything to add to this?
Also I would appreciate any opinions about why this shouldn't work or that it is messing with the function of my amp or speakers .
Feel free to tell me this is a bad practise,but in the interim I am enjoying the best sound I've ever had from my system.