Tweeter or Woofer connection with single wire


Not sure if this came up elsewhere in this forum but I was wondering what is the general preference out there when connecting a single speaker wire to a bi-wire speaker: do you connect to the woofer or the tweeter binding posts?

I used to always use the woofer posts but recently experimented with connecting to the tweeter post and so far prefer that connection. Detail and air seem improved, as well as a sense of delicacy and speed (so far on ATC SCM 11s and Proac 2.5). I know companies like Totem encourage experimentation. In an attempt to picture what is going on, I imagined (in comic book fashion) the music signal traveling down this hose and arriving at the binding posts and what happens then:

A tweeter/crossover is a humble thing with a generally high level of protection (resistance/impedance or the like), it only wants a small portion of your signal in terms of total energy, but insists on the detail and delicacy of this signal (and the right frequency range, I know). So by arriving first at the tweeter the signal is happy to give up this small amount of energy before moving on to the woofer who demands more more more. Also this woofer is a hyper sort that causes a fair amount of vibration and back emf and all sorts of nasties. Here the jumper has a chance to dissipate some of that vibration and life is good.

On the other hand if the music signal arrives at the woofer connection first, the woofer gobbles up all it wants with little regard to the needs of the tweeter. One hopes that the tweeter signal moves on to the tweeter with enough of the delicacy and detail still intact despite the vibrations and nasties coming from the woofer through the woofer binding posts.

Just curious how many out there favor one method over the other, thanking you in advance for your input.

Cheers
bokfudo

Showing 1 response by daveyf

That is a good question Bokfudo. Since electricity and therefore electrical signals move at the speed of light, I doubt the woofer has too much time to gobble up the signal before the signal bridges the appx 1-2" span between the connectors...:0)
Nonetheless, I do connect the woofer outputs of my amp to the woofer inputs on my speakers and the same with the tweets....Guess I'm also a little susceptible!!!