Generally Speaking


Okay, stick with me because no matter how many times I rewrite this it still sounds stupid. Lets say I'm looking at "Company X" and they offer four different speaker cables, lets call them A, B, C, and D (A being the best). "A" cost 1500.00, and "B" costs 800.00. Generally speaking is it better to go with "A" or have "B" bi-wired with the result that both sets now cost 1500.00? I know something like this must have been posted before, but 1) I can't find it, and 2)this might give new members a chance to post(no one likes posting on a dead thread). Thank you all in advance.
tbadder

Showing 2 responses by sean

My answer would depend on the speakers in use. If the speakers were TRULY isolated between the low and mid / hi frequency drivers when you pulled the jumpers, i would opt for "good" quality individual / seperate runs to each set of binding posts. If the drivers were still electrically connected internally after removing the jumpers, i would opt for a more expensive single run with good jumpers.

There is NO benefit to "bi-wiring" when you keep both signals in the same cable and simply split or share the cable. If you MUST split the cable or already have a pair like this, i would leave a good quality jumper intact for the lowest possible resistance between the two positive and two negative terminals. I know that this "voids" the idea behind "bi-wiring", but that is what i see as working best from an electrical standpoint. Sean
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TRUE bi-wiring ( individual cable runs to the high and low frequency drivers ) can contribute the following benefits to the system IF the drivers are actually isolated when you pull the jumpers:

Increased control of the individual drivers due to lower series resistance

Less crosstalk / intermodulation distortion between the woofer and mid / tweeter

Increased bandwidth / more linear response due to optimized cables for each frequency range

There may be other benefits to doing such that are inter-related to the above. You might also be able to achieve a portion of the above by using an all in one "bi-wire" cable IF the cable uses individually insulated conductors. For best results though, you really do need individual cables for each frequency range. Sean
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