What is a "SHOTGUN" speaker cable??

If you look at a shotgun, you will notice that it has 2 barrels. Basically, shotgun speaker cable is a double run of cable terminated into one connection at the speaker and amp ends. This differs from bi-wire which usually implies 1 connection at the amp end and 2 at the speaker end. Bi-wire can also mean 1 connection to the woofer and one to the tweeter with an independent wire run for each driver. In theory, a shotgun run would cost twice as much as a single run. Personally, I think this is a waste of money unless you have very inefficient speakers and a very powerful high current/high wattage amp to drive them.

I though that shotgun is a single connection at the amp end, and two connections at the speaker end. Biwire would have two connections at both ends.

I believe you are right themadmilkman.

Gosh- here is what I think:

An internal bi-wire has a single connection at the amp end and a double connection at the speaker end all housed in a single cable.

An external bi-wire or "shotgun" cable has two separate runs of cable with a single connection (a '+' & a '-') at the amp end and each separate run of cable has a '+' & '-' at the speaker end. So you have four runs of cable total. If you break the single connection at the amp end you could single wire two sets of speakers.

I think the term external biwire is aptly descriptive. Where the term "shotgun" came from is anybody's guess.