To Biwire or not to biwire

I believe bi-wiring is something you have to audition yourself. I don't always buy all of the "voodoo" that people tell you to try, but it did make an improvement on my maggie 3.5's.

I agree with Thinkat on something you should hear for yourself. Bi-wiring does open up the speakers and defines the output through the speakers. I use Revel Studios and they are bi-wired from the amp. I had some old non bi-wire I thought I would just try once and I did, that lasted about 30 minutes and the bi-wire went back on. You will notice an improvement (my view point)only.
Dave

In my experience, bi-wiring is always an improvement. I do somewhat agree with the opinion held by some individuals that high quality single speaker cables will often outperform modest quality bi-wire speaker cables. However, if everything is equal then bi-wiring is always better.

I have no direct experience with Coincident speakers or cables, but on my old Spendors, 'shotgun' style bi-wire cables made a significant improvement over several types of single speaker cables.

bi wire is b.s.

I have never heard anyone say bi-wire sounds worse and it is not BS, but it is a matter of how to best spend your audio cable budget.

I have several pairs of speakers and sometimes use single run of speaker cable (with improved jumpers) and also use double cable runs for bi-wire (which sounds better than internal bi-wire, but expensive option)

I think in many cases you will get best sound from just spending 2X as much for better single cable vs double cable runs for bi-wire.......but this is not universal statement for all cables/speaker combos, just my overall impressions from experience.

From Audiogoner's experiences, how have the single cables with a jumper (of a similar cable type) performed in comparison to the bi-wire (shotgun and internal)?

there is no evidence from any manufacturer (only opinion) that bi wiring does anything positve or negative. it is a selling feature....ask any longtime speaker buider who hasn't bowed to the pressure of marketing a myth. ...shahinian,thiel...even some that do offer bi wiring will admit its there only because its easier than explaining that it is b.s.

The last three sets of speakers I owned were bi-wireable. I started with jumpers, but soon went to bi-wire and have never gone back to the jumpers(which were good cable too).

I have been very happy with the results of bi-wiring and have no intention of going back!

Bi-wiring can work depending on the cables and the speaker. I have also found that a single wire with jumpers can be just as good for a lot less money.

I have identified one theoretical reason why biwire may be helpful, Forget about the Hot speaker wire: look at the return. The return terminals of the woofer and tweeter are tied together, and then returned to ground through the non-zero impedance of the speaker cable. This provides a mechanism for the two drivers to interfere with each other. Separate return wires would eliminate this.

Another thing that I have done, and which seems to be a success, is to replace the tweeter padding resistor with the resistance of small-size tweeter cable. In my case this is easy to do, because the tweeter padding resistor is externally mounted and its value is easily changed to suit listener preference. With my MG 1.6 I like one ohm. So, I made the tweeter wires so that they have one ohm, round trip. The main advantage of this approach is cost reduction. I was able to biamp three speakers for about $8.50, and I still have some wire left over.

Did biamping help? Don't know. They sounded good before, and they still do.

I've never heard a difference biwiring unless I used dis-similar cables to act as a poor man's tone control, which works by the way, at least until you can afford to by a proper matching amp for your speakers.

IMHO, biwre makes no difference except if you're using very thin speaker cable ( double the band width helps in this case.) Biwire is more for bi-amping and I have not heard any good bi-amping combo in 3 systems. It just doesn't sound natural ( not in sync ) to me. Just make sure you have good connection ( a good pair of jumper cable ) in between the binding posts and concertrate on a good pair of speaker cable.

Of course I meant "bi-wire" not 'bi-amp" (although I do that also).

For some reason I can't find the option that allows one to correct a posting.

Right now my speakers are bi-wired and I love the sound, but I'm looking to upgrade my amp and am not sure I'll be able to to use the double runs. I spent a lot on the cables (all Kimber, 4TC for the treble and 8 for the bass) and would really like to keep what I've got. Can anyone tell me some amps that will accomodate?

Sorry if this is a silly question -- I'm fairly new to the upgrade bug...

I use Audioquest Volcano for bass and mid, Audioquest Mont Blanc for treble. I tried them with and without a jumper for extended periods of time. Without a jumper is way better than with a jumper. The clarity and musicality is far superior without the jumper. There is more, but overblown bass, when the jumper is used.

With very large woofers, like 10in, I would try bi-wire.

This is an old, oft- recurring, and well- explored issue.
Go scope out the numerous discussion posts here on AUDIOGON and CANUCKAUDIOMART.

Here is just one sampler :

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/to-bi-wire-or-use-jumpers