Bi-wire

[admin_exported]

Hi new to home cinema, currenly got a Jamo A102HCS5 5.1 Speaker Pack on order for connection to my new Denon AVR 1909. My TV is the Panasonic TH42PZ81 and my blue ray player is the PS3.

A few basic questions:

1) What is bi-wire speaker cable, would this be used for connecting the rear surround speakers to the AVR? How does bi-wire differ from normal single speaker cable?

2) Will these speakers accept airlock or banana connections? What is the best method of connecting speakers to the AVR?

3) When playing blue ray disc through the PS3 connected to the AVR with HDMI do you also need to connect the digital optical to get true HD sound?

Help would be appreciated.

 

[Big Aura]

1) What is bi-wire speaker cable, would this be used for connecting the rear surround speakers to the AVR? How does bi-wire differ from normal single speaker cable?

bi-wire cable is essentially normal cable, but there's two of them (so instead of one positive and one negative, you have two positives and two negatives). You will use normal speaker cable to connect the rears, not sure about your speakers but I have the same amp. you can bi-wire and bi-amp your front left/rights using a 1909.

2) Will these speakers accept airlock or banana connections? What is the best method of connecting speakers to the AVR?

I use unfinished cables, but "think" banana will work.

3) When playing blue ray disc through the PS3 connected to the AVR with HDMI do you also need to connect the digital optical to get true HD sound?

Optical cannot support true HD, only HDMi can. If it's not working, your PS3 is set up incorrectly!

 

[Andrew Everard]

1) Cable with four conductors, used to connect speakers designed for biwiring - ie with four terminals on the back, not two, to the amplifier. Or you can use two runs of conventional two-core cable.

Unless you're building a very high-end system, such as one using the same speakers all round for mutlichannel music, biwiring the rear speakers is probably overkill, even if you believe in the benefits of biwiring - and not everyone does.

2) No, bare wire terminals at the speaker end. Best to use banana plugs at the receiver end if you want to, although you could just as easily use bare wire connections here too.

3) No. The PS3 will decode the HD audio tracks to Linear PCM, and output this over HDMI to the receiver.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks