2. cables
  3. 1347325749

single ended cable crossed at bi wireable speaker?

Hi! I'm completely new here, and I don't mean to reopen the bi-wiring can of worms. I just have one specific question. Today while researching about bi wiring and assessing whether I should re terminate my AQ Rockefellers, I came across an arrangement I had never seen before. Its on the last part of this pdf:

www2.audioquest.com/wp-content/.../02/UndrstndgBiWr.pdf

basically you use your speaker single ended wire as you'd usually do at the amp end but you plug the red terminal to the HF and the black end to the LF at the speaker end. Leave the jumper plates on. I tried this on my system today. The bass became less forceful without loosing definition or extension. I gained much more air in the tweeter and more presence and clarity in the mids. The soudstage became initially too wide and slightly confused but now I've gotten used to it and it seems more spacious.

Has anyone experimented with this arrangement? how about the opposite at the speaker end? additionally, has anyone tried the audioquest bi wireable speaker cable? I'm slightly worried that on the website it claims that the geometry favors punch on the LF speaker end without "ultimate resolution" which is something I don't necessarily want for the bass.

(I kind of miss the punch of the bass with the previous arrangement but the hi hat and ride cymbal now flies high in my room :) compromises, you know.

cheers!
audiopanda
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,808 posts
 
Audiopanda,

I understand where experimenting with speaker cables of differing properties can negatively affect the sound where the crossovers are but in my case, I have Tonian Labs TL-D1s which use a Lowther widebander with a customized Raven supertweeter that covers the uppermost frequencies so that critical 2K region is unaffected.

Lucky me.

But by all means, do experiment and trust your ears. One doesn't have to go exotic and spend lots of money. In my case, I had some time on my hands and simply experimented with some older cables I had laying around and simply lucked out on the results.

Now that I've had success with the bi-wire approach, I'm going to try out a double run of the Helixes to see if they better what I've gotten so far, when the urge (demons) get the better of me and my pocketbook.

All the best,
Nonoise
douglas_schroeder
3,281 posts
 
Audiopanda, my experience has been that jumpers of any sort are inferior to double sets of cables in parallel.
audiopanda OP
7 posts
 
Douglas, the only thing im slightly concerned is that using double runs could increase the bass prominence, which I really dont need as there is a bump in the 40hz region. Could you elaborate a little on how the sound differs when using double runs? Sorry to be a pita, but getting a similiar cable would be well over $800. And my dealer doesn't have one to demo.
douglas_schroeder
3,281 posts
 
Audiopanda, all frequencies are influenced, not only bass. The only way this would perhaps be a problem is if the cables emphasize the bass in the first place. Then going to two pair would give more of that effect. Usually if you like what the cable is doing then doubling will give you more of what you like.

So, if you do not want ANY more bass at all than what you have now, the answer is yes, you will get more bass presence. But you should also get more Mid/Treble too, and more clarity, and more 3-D soundstage, etc.

I would assume that running two pair you will have the same bump in the 40Hz region, only the bump will be more beautiful sounding. I'm only half-joking. :)
More to discover