Biwiring - does it actually improve anything..?

[mysticfred]

I am talking about bi-wiring as opposed to bi-amping, having done many tests over the years i have found hardly or no difference at all, but using a high quality pair of single cables (Kimber 8TC in my case) with 4TC cable jumpers i made up myself, has paid dividends and improved the whole sound - bass is more focussed, better soundstage and imaging, excellent detail.

I hardly really noticed any difference in bi-amping either but can understand the theory behind it, but with bi-wiring what is the sense in running two pairs of cables back to the same amp?

[Mark E Smith's Dentist]

It seems to depend on the XO although it will halve the resistance of the speaker cable. Kimber reckon 8TC (or VS, whatever) is better than 4TC and that's simply twice the number of conductors.

I'm not sure about it myself - I did biwire one pair of speakers (too shy to tell what ) with convincing results but I tried it with another pair (SD3) and couldn't really tell much difference.

It also depends on the cable - singlewire with better cable > biwire with lesser cable.

Changing the jumpers from the crappy stock ones probably has more of an effect.


JT

[LeeS]

but with bi-wiring what is the sense in running two pairs of cables back to the same amp?

There is no sense at all.... Unless you're a cable manufacturer trying to sell more cable !!

[rexton]

I'm b-wired and bi-amped and the difference is staggering. I use Quad 77 pre-amp and x2 quad 77 power amps. I use Nordost SPM reference cable (which can be picked up quite cheaply now on ebay). All I can say is that I', definitely not going back to an Intergrated amp status.

[Bigears]

Bi-wiring theory lies in the suedo-technical explanation that for longer speaker runs, the resistnce is halved, therefore the amp can still deliver the dynamic range expected and the SPL's. It also has its basis in that HF signals don't like mixing with LF signals or that to separate is better. I've never subscribed totally to either explanation as both are seriously flawed.

In practice, a good quality cable (note I didn't say "uber expensive cable") will not need to be used bi-wired. Most people neglect to throw away their binding post links (cheap brass coated bits of metal) and this is where false impressions for biwiring are gained. If those cheap links are replced with the same speaker cable you use in the main runs, you'll probably not notice any difference at all bi wiring and there is no solid proof that bi-wiring helps anyone other than your dealer and cable manufacturers.

Keep speaker cable runs as short as possible, and of equal lengths, and forget bi-wiring.

Bi-amping....now thats a different story

[1200y3]

You could do an experiment by using low capacitance cable for the tweeter, and low inductance cable for the woofer. I am sure the filters and crossover can stay at the speakers, but moving the crossover to the amp side may change it . The problem you may encounter will be amplifier instability or a high pitched whine.

Bi wiring should not be a requirement and is senseless because the system should be as integrated as possible, and not split in pieces. But big woofers need low inductance (parallel inductance) cable.

If your doing 50 foot runs, the difference will be easily noticed if there is one, and you can only try it. If your amp is smart, any wire will work. In fact the wire choice may depend on the amplifier's power supply.

[Escarpe]

In theory Bi-Wiring can reduce the resistance over a long cable run as someone has already pointed out. However the reality is that double blind tests say that unless your using terrible quality cable there is no signifigant differnce between a speaker that has been Bi-Wired and one that is running good cable for the lenght of run.
So it's probable that any increase in quality you expereinced was psychosomatic. Which isn't to discount it.
I recently spent the time and money to cap all the speaker wire ends in my home theatre (which is seperate to my Vinyl two channel setup) for no good reason really, it just made everything neater (not that you can see it).
But after I had done it I could have sworn that everything sounded a little better, seems ridiculous but there it was. My happiness at having everything neat and "just right" made a difference to the sound. Is that all in my head? Who cares?! It made a differnce to me.
Bi-amping however in my experence really can make a definitive and tangable difference to the sound of your system.

[banerjba]

I have been biwiring for 20 years.

I own two different pairs of B&Ws, a pair of Linns and previously had Rogers. All of them audibly improved with biwiring. The impact is generally better midrange, better articulation of extremes and usually a more open and deeper sound stage.

The difference was more subtle on my old Rogers (a 1970s design) but quite noticeable on the modern B&W and Linn designs.

I have used cheap 16 guage Monster cable, higher quality 12 gauge Monster and Linn wire. Amps included h/k, Yamaha, Linn and McIntosh.

[Dadimo]

I had one system in the house bi-wired, but then I wanted some decent quality speaker cables for a second system that I started listening to again. To the person that mentioned cheap jumpers on bi-wire capable speakers, I understand what you meant. Now I have 2 systems with decent speaker cables. Maybe I was being cheap

[blue-starfish]

It is speaker dependant. After trying out bi-wiring with my former Living Voice Avatar 2, the difference was very obvious.

The music was much more coherent and separation better top-to-bottom.

And bi-wiring is recommended by the manufacturer too.

[Bigears]

The music was much more coherent and separation better top-to-bottom.

What does that actually mean?

Music being non-coherent implies a lousy system. Separation??? Seamless integration between speaker drive units is what I listen for..or rather the absence of obvious separation or gaps in frequency response.

Sorry ,but after years of experimenting, I am firmly convinced that its (bi-wiring) another HiFi myth.

[LeeS]

The music was much more coherent and separation better top-to-bottom.

What does that actually mean?

Exactly what I thought !!

.....after years of experimenting, I am firmly convinced that its (bi-wiring) another HiFi myth.

Exactly what I think !!

[banerjba]

The music was much more coherent and separation better top-to-bottom.

What does that actually mean?

Exactly what I thought !!

.....after years of experimenting, I am firmly convinced that its (bi-wiring) another HiFi myth.

Exactly what I think !!

Not a myth but difference could depend on the speaker design and the rest of your system. The difference was more subtle on my older design speakers than the more modern higher resolution ones.

Biwiring is great for a slightly bright or boomy system as it evens out the frequencies IME. If you are happy with the balance without biwring then leave it.

[LeeS]

Biwiring is great for a slightly bright or boomy system as it evens out the frequencies IME.

How does it do this?