Bi-wiring

[stevee1966]

Does bi-wiring give an big improvement in sound or is there not much difference to just using single cable ?

For instance on a fairly low budget system - Marantz 6002 cd player and amp, connected to B+W 685 speakers - is it worth bi-wiring ?

 

[chebby]

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[stevee1966]

chebby:Maybe someone can explain how (without active crossovers) each frequency range from one single signal (at the amp end) can 'know' which cable to go down? Surely the same signal is offered up to both parts of the loudspeaker's split crossover which then just filters off whatever frequencies it isn't using.

It is not as if the high frequencies go down one cable and the low/mid down another. Frequencies cannot 'elect' a path of their own before they get to a speakers crossover can they?

Exactly the same thought that i had the other day, and i'd like to know the answer too. About a week ago i questioned on this forum how to bi-wire an amp and speakers as i thought perhaps you needed a special amp with 2 outputs to match the 2 biwire connections at the speaker end. The reply was any amp can bi-wire as you attach both cables to a single connector on the amp, thus i had exactly the same thoughts that the signal is the same from each so what difference does it make at the speaker end.

 

[fatboyslimfast]

This has been covered in a previous thread, but basically...

1) Biwiring proponents believe that the 2nd run of cable avoids the bass driver (which can act like a generator when it's being pulled back by the surround) putting it's generated voltage back down the treble cable confusing things

2) Opponents will state that as the cable is connected to the same place (i.e the amp) then this is merely poppycock

3) Some people attribute the extra detail that is possible ( with some speakers) to the fact that you have twice the cable delivering the current (and therefore half the resistance), and that therefore it makes no difference if the jumpers at the speaker terminals are there or not

My personal view is that on some speakers it makes a small but noticeable difference, on others it doesn't. FWIW, my RS6s are single wired. Whether it will make a difference in your setup is debateable, but certainly not impossible. Ask a friendly dealer if he can loan you two lengths of bi-wire cable to try out... most will oblige!

Then there is bi-amping, but that's a whole different boiling implement of eels...

 

[Anton90125]

chebby:I could never be bothered when I had bi-wirable speakers (KEF Q35's a few years ago). I looked at the bi-wirable cable that was around at the time (QED I think) and it looked waaay ugly and took two large men to carry it (OK I exaggerate somewhat!) and would not form itself around corners neatly. Hideous stuff and not really necessary. Thankfully my latest speakers do not offer the option to biwire so there is no "what if" to worry about.

Maybe someone can explain how (without active crossovers) each frequency range from one single signal (at the amp end) can 'know' which cable to go down? Surely the same signal is offered up to both parts of the loudspeaker's split crossover which then just filters off whatever frequencies it isn't using.

It is not as if the high frequencies go down one cable and the low/mid down another. Frequencies cannot 'elect' a path of their own before they get to a speakers crossover can they?

Just a thought. (And probably wrong. I was wrong about mains leads until I tried one out for myself.)

I am happy to be enlightened though.

You might want to take a look at the following:

http://www.geocities.com/jonrisch/biwiring.htm

He goes into quite a bit of detail including various measurements he has made graphs and all.

PS I seem to have very little formatting capability (much like when I lost the ability to format on the last forum software used by what hifi).

 

[chebby]

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[Anton90125]

chebby:Thanks for the info and the link. I will make it clickable for you...

http://www.geocities.com/jonrisch/biwiring.htm

My formatting is OK here still. (XP and Firefox 3)

I am using XP and Firefox 2.

Is there a "switch" like in the old forum that gives you full formatting capabilities such as bolding/hyperlinks etc..

Under option all I get is :"File attachment","Do not allow replies" and "Post Icon:"

 

[chebby]

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[Anton90125]

chebby:I don't know of any such switch sorry.

Now you are rubbing it in !