To bi wire or not bi wire


Hello all,
I have a pair of B&W P6 speakers driven by a plinius 8100 integrated. 
The plinius has two sets of speaker outputs per channel and the B&W’s are biwireable. 
Would there be any benefit to running 4 separate cables? If so, any recommendations for cables?
The binding posts on the B&W’s make using spades difficult so banana’s would work better. 
Just asking this question because it would require a total of 24 feet of cable so it could get pricey real fast.
budget is around $500.
Thanks in advance
skipper320
tomic601

It seems then that the speakers company’s engineers like Mission who decided to design their speakers for specifically be bi-wired must had studied with Tesla...:)

And the refutation of the benefits of bi-wiring must be faulted by some Shakespearian misunderstanding in some faulty speakers installation or design...

Thanks for your spiritful remark....

My best...
IF your speakers are incapable of correct impulse response, don’t bother with bi-wire.

IF on the other hand, your speakers are time and phase correct, then an external biwire matters.  The physics are simple. Shakespeare never studied with Tesla.
I must add that they are no universal accepted one opinion about bi-wiring…. To know if it will be positive for our speakers we must try...
For bi-wiring the argument for shorter length is one of the arguments that speak against it...


But they are other arguments...

I will give a citation from an interesting article:

«We have discovered that if your speakers have four binding posts then you may take advantage of the bi-wiring option and that you will need twice as much cable as before. We theorised and proved by measurement, the counter-intuitive notion that the high and low frequencies travel only in their designated cables. We have also shown by measurement that the theory that this would reduce intermodulation distortion caused by non-linearity in the speaker system is proven.»

https://www.qacoustics.co.uk/blog/2016/06/08/bi-wiring-speakers-exploration-benefits/



My Mission speakers are designed to be bi-wired and I listen to them in the 2 flavor, and the bi-wiring gives more details.... Also I dont think in my case that 6 feet of cables versus only 3 feet for each speakers make an audible negative differences...

This is an explanation from another known speakers cie. Mirage-Om-7s

file:///C:/Users/Utilisateur/Pictures/OM7%20manual.JPG

CHORD:
In all the research we have carried out, a single wire speaker cable out-performs a bi-wire cable of equivalent cost. This makes a lot of sense; the single wire speaker cable has two high quality conductors and the bi-wire cable requires four. So for a given budget, we believe that a single wire cable will always out-perform the equivalent bi-wire cable, so much so that we no longer produce dedicated bi-wire cables..."

miller carbon:
For the same money you can always do better with one than splitting the money into 2. Duh.

Shakespeare:
Brevity is the soul of wit.

Conclusion:
Don't.
" (1) it is entirely system dependent.... and until you actually do an A-B bake-off... you won’t know. "


Kind of true, if you add a crappy cable to a crappy system it will not change too much, that`s true. But adding a good set of cables in a allready good system will definetly open it up. 

Close to no audiophiles understands biwiring, and on top of that even fewer undestands cables. So you`ll get some rather foggy answers
I feel the same immediately and without any doubts at all... Not the same cables tough, but good cables against other good cables... Bi-wiring must be better...
FWIW, I tried it both with identical cables from same manufacturer (Tara Labs). One set single wire (using original speaker jumpers) and one set of single bi wire configuration. After a lot of back and forth and I do mean a lot, I found I preferred the single bi wire configuration. It just sounded better. I cannot define exactly what it is but I can say it sounds better to me and I’m the one that matters the most.
I say try it both ways and you decide what sounds best to you. Don’t worry about anybody else’s opinion. It’s you and your ears that you have to please.
PS. Speakers are B&Ws
I'm a Nordost user.

If you decide on BH cables,get the Norse jumpers to compliment them.

The BH power cord, might make a more noticeable impact. It uses the same design as their upscale models.

Speaker cable is last on the list to upgrade according to Nordost philosophy.

I biwire....tried with and without....biwire sounds better to me.  Why not try it yourself
This is a tough one to debate. I have gone back and forth so many times, currently on a Canari 4S11 biwire config.

Previously I had a Mapleshade Helix single wire setup where I untwisted a few more inches of wire, scraped off the insulation and fed it up through the second terminal set to create my integrated jumper. Ridiculous how some jumpers cost as much as wire sets.

But after A-B testing, the Canari was noticeably better in bass and mids. I did chop off the Blue Jeans spades off the Canari and I believe that helped too.

I have a Mogami wire coming where I am going to DIY a set of biwire with unterminated connections.

So to biwire or not is a good excuse to try out different configs, if nothing else and it is fun.
As someone who shotgun bi-wires I’d recommend putting those $s into upgrading other components first unless you think they’re all up to where you want them to be.  I also agree with others that if you haven’t replaced the stock jumper plates with good-quality wire jumpers I’d consider doing that at a far lower cost before employing many feet of expensive speaker cable.  What I’m saying is, there are many other ways to spend money on a system that yield more improvement per dollar than doubling your speaker cable, at least in my experience.  For what it’s worth.  
Dear akg_ca,
My sincere thanks for your unhelpful input. Since my system has changed over the years and my inability to demo cables due to where I live, I seek opinions on what is available and in my price range. I would rather field opinions from real users instead of the mass media reviews. Feel  free to refrain from reading or posting any of your answers or opinions to my questions.I'm merely seeking others opinions. If you feel put out or offended by my numerous posts, feel free to skim over them and move on.
cheers and happy listening,
shawn
To the OP

Because cable audio performance and its overall system synergy (... or lack of it ...) is a well-travelled and oft-repeated theme that is always intuitively determined by the following two main factors in lock-step:
(a) cable selection and performance optimization is entirely your bespoke unique audio system dependent; 
(b) the unique warts in your bespoke listening environment (... as big a influencing factor as (a) above ...) 

Hence, it is impossible for outsiders to make any further comment over and above what has already  been offered up. 
You already have have numerous recent posts below on the same general theme. It’s now entirely up to you alone to experiment further in your system, especially as you appear to have already distilled your options down to your own personal faves. 

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/speaker-cable-help-4

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/speaker-cable-recommendation-6

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/speaker-cable-help-4

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/speaker-cables-for-vienna-mozart-speakers
So I’ve narrowed the choices down to the following. 
Dh labs t14 and q10
signal ultra
black cat coppertone
nordost blue heaven
discovery 123
thoughts?

douglas_Schroeder nailed it....= no consensus on this question. 

thus is a well -travelled and oft repeated subject .

 AUDIOGON ( do a search for bi-wire ...)

CANUCKAUDIOMART
https://www.canuckaudiomart.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=52979

PINKFISHMEDIA/Audio
https://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/connecting-single-cable-to-bi-wire-terminals.236240/#post-38...

In brief

(1) it is entirely system dependent.... and until you actually do an A-B bake-off... you won’t know.
(2) Some speaker manufacturers indeed do favour them (e.g Vandersteen ....) but some of the top cable manufacturers (CHORD, NORDOST....) favour a higher quality single run + jumpers as a better choice over bi-wires at the same price-point. See below
(3) BI-AMPING (with 4 separate cable runs... );;Different story.

E.g. NORDOST 
https://www.nordost.com/downloads/NorseJumperinstructions.pdf

CHORD
https://www.chord.co.uk/speaker-cable-guide/

".... Many hi-fi and home cinema loudspeakers have two pairs of binding posts. This allows the speaker to be either bi-wired using two sets of loudspeaker cable or bi-amped using two amplifiers.

As a general rule (and there will always be exceptions) we tend to find that bi-wiring will open out the sound stage and increase perceived levels of detail. However, single wiring will often sound the most musically coherent. There is also an issue with single and bi-wire speaker cables. In all the research we have carried out, a single wire speaker cable out-performs a bi-wire cable of equivalent cost. This makes a lot of sense; the single wire speaker cable has two high quality conductors and the bi-wire cable requires four. So for a given budget, we believe that a single wire cable will always out-perform the equivalent bi-wire cable, so much so that we no longer produce dedicated bi-wire cables..."

TAKEAWAY
Thus there is no silver bullet one size fits all answer.... full stop.

 


If you already have 4 cables then yes. Maybe.  If you will be buying then no. For the same money you can always do better with one than splitting the money into 2. Duh. Or everybody would be doing it.
You will find no consensus on this question. Simply try variations of connections if motivated.