Connecting Speakers

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I have received some Acustic Research speakers - they are not that bad actually, but they are a few years old.

On the front speakers, there are 4 connectors in the back. On the center and rear speakers, there are only 2 connectors.

Why are there 4 connectors on the back and how should I best connect them to the home receiver?

Secondly, what is bi-wiring and what are the benefits?

Thanks

 

[Andrew Everard]

To answer the second question first, biwiring involves the use of two sets of speaker cables, or a special four-conductor biwire cable, from the speaker terminals on your amplifier to the four connections on the speaker.

So you have two 'red' connections and two 'black' for each speaker. The most common way of doing this is to have the two 'reds' connected together at the amplifier end, and the two 'black' wires similarly connected.

The same connections can be used for biamplifying the speakers, for example with an integrated amplifier and matching power amplifier, two stereo power amplifiers, or even some AV receivers, which let you reassign the rear-channel amplifiers for this purpose when running a 5.1-channel system.

Those who believe in the benefits of biwiring cite better focus and bass definition; those who don't believe suggest that it's not worth bothering.

If you want to use your front speakers without biwiring, they will either come with metal links between the the two '+' terminals on the rear of the speaker, and the same between the two '-' terminals or, if these links are missing, you can substitute short 'jumper' links of wire between the terminals.

 

[Anonymous]

yeah those speakers will have come with a couple of links to join the two sets of terminals together, but don't be afraid to use an offcut of good speaker wire instead... in fact that could quite easily be a higher quality solution.

what they are is that (in a standard two way cabinet) the top set will provide power to the tweeter and the bottom set to the woofer. In cabinets with more driveers the configuration will differ by manufacturer, for example my monitor audios power the tweeter+mid bass woofer on the top set and the dedicated bass woofer on the bottom set. Others might power only the tweeter from the top or a tweeter + mid only driver.