Vandersteen is very clear that they believe the two sets of wires need to be physically separated by at least an inch or two, and that internal biwire cables defeat the goal of biwiring
Transparent Cables and Bi-wiring to Vandersteens
I have Vandersteen 2Ce Signatures--capable of delivering a lot of information about what is being fed to them. I have immense respect for Richard and his products, thus I want to believe him when he dictates that his speakers must be bi-wired and that two less expensive runs of cable to each speaker sounds better than one for the same price.
Alternatively, I worked at a Transparent dealer out of college many years ago and became loyal to their brand. I have spoken with Transparent about the whole bi-wiring thing, and their official stance is that for what it costs to do a true bi-wire (that is, their Bi-"CABLES", now discontinued), one can simply move up a level in their lineup and attain equal, if not better, results.
So who do I believe? I have never had access to someone with a lot of Audioquest stock to try their bi-wire speaker cables or other brands. Transparent's current "Bi-wire" cables are the same as using jumpers. They just build the jumpers into the end of the cables for you (taken straight from them), so they are not true bi-wire cables.
I recently moved from Music Wave Ultra MM to Reference MM2 and decided to go through the re-connections of doing a little test that dawned on me while I had both in my possession--do a true bi-wire with both sets of cables. Reference MM2 for mids/lows and the Ultra MM for the highs (I know, right?! Keep both--ha). I keep seeking more depth and did not get that or what I would say was better imaging, but what I did get was a little bit more organic sound in the upper frequencies, which means a lot to me. I want it to sound real. Switching back to just the Reference and jumpers, I guess I would say that I hear more distortion in the upper frequencies. I couldn't quite place it, but some other things sounded a little better, though. Imaging and air maybe. Perhaps better attacks. It also occurred to me that the Reference are calibrated to a High-Z value and that the parallel speaker cable runs would have cut that in half and possibly put it out of range.
So what do I do? I think I have the most basic Transparent jumpers, so I could upgrade those (they recommended this). Maybe the upper frequencies would get better then. I could sell both of what I have and search for an older bi-cable in Ultra or Reference, both of which are very hard to find. Or I could abandon Transparent for speaker cables and go with someone else entirely.
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...).
Thanks a lot!
Alternatively, I worked at a Transparent dealer out of college many years ago and became loyal to their brand. I have spoken with Transparent about the whole bi-wiring thing, and their official stance is that for what it costs to do a true bi-wire (that is, their Bi-"CABLES", now discontinued), one can simply move up a level in their lineup and attain equal, if not better, results.
So who do I believe? I have never had access to someone with a lot of Audioquest stock to try their bi-wire speaker cables or other brands. Transparent's current "Bi-wire" cables are the same as using jumpers. They just build the jumpers into the end of the cables for you (taken straight from them), so they are not true bi-wire cables.
I recently moved from Music Wave Ultra MM to Reference MM2 and decided to go through the re-connections of doing a little test that dawned on me while I had both in my possession--do a true bi-wire with both sets of cables. Reference MM2 for mids/lows and the Ultra MM for the highs (I know, right?! Keep both--ha). I keep seeking more depth and did not get that or what I would say was better imaging, but what I did get was a little bit more organic sound in the upper frequencies, which means a lot to me. I want it to sound real. Switching back to just the Reference and jumpers, I guess I would say that I hear more distortion in the upper frequencies. I couldn't quite place it, but some other things sounded a little better, though. Imaging and air maybe. Perhaps better attacks. It also occurred to me that the Reference are calibrated to a High-Z value and that the parallel speaker cable runs would have cut that in half and possibly put it out of range.
So what do I do? I think I have the most basic Transparent jumpers, so I could upgrade those (they recommended this). Maybe the upper frequencies would get better then. I could sell both of what I have and search for an older bi-cable in Ultra or Reference, both of which are very hard to find. Or I could abandon Transparent for speaker cables and go with someone else entirely.
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...).
Thanks a lot!
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