What is "biwiring"?

If you have a relatively resistive wire going to insensitive speakers then the best thing to do would be to give the bass driver as much help as it can get, and go for a single-wire. No point in cossetting the treble if the bass driver is having problems getting its amps. Sensitive speakers don't experience the downside of biwiring nearly as much so its best to get the benefits of keeping the signals apart and go for the biwire option.

Good information, Nullgeodesic. Thank you.

Holly

This is probably a stupid question, but here goes anyway. I have a set of B&W CM4 speakers, and a center CMC speaker. They all have 2 sets of terminals; my dealer did not explain anything to me about "bi-wiring," he just said that "true audiophiles" (?!?) just use the lower terminals... From what I have read here, though, it would appear that my speakers are set up for bi-wiring - is this correct? (Told you it was a stupid question, but I'm just trying to learn here!):-o My receiver is not set up for bi-wiring, but I reckon I can just use one terminal for 2 cables...

And, could anyone clarify whether or not bi-wiring makes a sonic improvement? Newbee said he didn't feel there was a meaningful difference, while Bgrazman said he thought it could make a pretty big difference. I realize it all depends on ones own ears and system, but I am curious, and would like to know if its worth the expense to experiment with this.

Also, if you use two cables to each speaker instead of the special - and expensive - biwire cable, I assume that both cables have to be the same brand and type. Just checking; please let me know if this is not so!