"I appreciate others' testing and experiences more than opinions. Who has compared Transparent speaker wire to other brands? Who has experimented with their bi-cables and bi-wiring? What other brands would be on the same level as Reference MM2 and for roughly the same cost or cheaper? I am trying to put all Reference MM2 in my system now (interconnects, speaker wire...)."
I have some experience with this using your speakers. All of my comments on biwiring are about Vandersteen Model 2 and 3's. I find that Vandersteen is very different than other brands when it comes to biwiring. After reading your post, I would recommend you try 2 things. First, is you need to use the same exact cable for the highs and lows. Every time I tried different cables, it always sounds messed up. Second, is to try something other than Transparent. I've used both MIT and Transparent and while I got good results with other brands of speakers, I didn't care for them on the Vandersteen's. I suspect that it has something to do with the network box. The best results I could get were with a network box cable was an internal biwire pair of MIT's. I still preferred regular cables.
You ask if its better to use 2 less expensive runs of cable, as opposed to 1 better quality run with a jumper. Here's the results I got (please keep in mind this is my subjective opinion - i can't gaurantee that everyone would come to the same conclusion i did). I first took a pair of single run Tara The 2's (about $3500 if I remember correctly) and hooked it up to my Model 2's with a jumper to break them in and get to know the speaker. Everything sounded fine with the Tara's. Cable Co. sent me a box of speaker cables and I ended up picking a internal biwire pair of AQ that went for about $2000. I thought they were a little better than the Tara. I figured it was the biwiring. Before I placed my order for the AQ's I tried, I called AQ and confirmed with them I should get the cables with 1/4in spade's. When I told the guy from AQ what speakers I had, he insisted I get 2 separate pairs of CV-6 ($1200) instead. He said it would definitely sound better. So I ordered 2 pairs of CV-6. Someone messed up and sent me 2 pairs of Type 6 instead ($400 for both runs, and only because of the factory terminations. Type 6 was AQ's best bulk cable). I told Cable Co. about the mistake and they said it was no problem if I use the Type 6 they sent me until I got my CV-6. The sound I got from the 2, brand new and unbroken in pairs of Type 6, was much better than any cable I tried up to that point. Wasn't even close. Had I not heard the difference myself, I would never have believed it. Eventually, I got my 2 runs if CV-8 (during the wait, CV-6 was replaced by CV-8, so that's what AQ gave me). They were better, but nothing like the difference of using 2 separate runs of cable.
So that's my take on it, anyway. I typed all this out really fast, so if I messed something up, just let me know and I'll clarify it. Hope this info helps.
I have some experience with this using your speakers. All of my comments on biwiring are about Vandersteen Model 2 and 3's. I find that Vandersteen is very different than other brands when it comes to biwiring. After reading your post, I would recommend you try 2 things. First, is you need to use the same exact cable for the highs and lows. Every time I tried different cables, it always sounds messed up. Second, is to try something other than Transparent. I've used both MIT and Transparent and while I got good results with other brands of speakers, I didn't care for them on the Vandersteen's. I suspect that it has something to do with the network box. The best results I could get were with a network box cable was an internal biwire pair of MIT's. I still preferred regular cables.
You ask if its better to use 2 less expensive runs of cable, as opposed to 1 better quality run with a jumper. Here's the results I got (please keep in mind this is my subjective opinion - i can't gaurantee that everyone would come to the same conclusion i did). I first took a pair of single run Tara The 2's (about $3500 if I remember correctly) and hooked it up to my Model 2's with a jumper to break them in and get to know the speaker. Everything sounded fine with the Tara's. Cable Co. sent me a box of speaker cables and I ended up picking a internal biwire pair of AQ that went for about $2000. I thought they were a little better than the Tara. I figured it was the biwiring. Before I placed my order for the AQ's I tried, I called AQ and confirmed with them I should get the cables with 1/4in spade's. When I told the guy from AQ what speakers I had, he insisted I get 2 separate pairs of CV-6 ($1200) instead. He said it would definitely sound better. So I ordered 2 pairs of CV-6. Someone messed up and sent me 2 pairs of Type 6 instead ($400 for both runs, and only because of the factory terminations. Type 6 was AQ's best bulk cable). I told Cable Co. about the mistake and they said it was no problem if I use the Type 6 they sent me until I got my CV-6. The sound I got from the 2, brand new and unbroken in pairs of Type 6, was much better than any cable I tried up to that point. Wasn't even close. Had I not heard the difference myself, I would never have believed it. Eventually, I got my 2 runs if CV-8 (during the wait, CV-6 was replaced by CV-8, so that's what AQ gave me). They were better, but nothing like the difference of using 2 separate runs of cable.
So that's my take on it, anyway. I typed all this out really fast, so if I messed something up, just let me know and I'll clarify it. Hope this info helps.