shadders
Well-known member
Hi,
There is no point in not using the biwire as is, just don't take out the plates.
Regards,
Shadders.
There is no point in not using the biwire as is, just don't take out the plates.
Regards,
Shadders.
shadders
Well-known member
Hi.
It is to see if when leaving them in, does the sibilance return to pre-biwire levels.
Regards,
Shadders.
I see. Is it technically possible the plates are somehow reducing sibilance or the frequency at which sibilance happens?
shadders
Well-known member
Hi,
The plates will not reduce sibilance - they are just metal. Try it and see if the sibilance is reduced. There is another mechanism potentially causing sibilance.
Regards,
Shadders.
TrevC
Well-known member
Could be the recording, the vocalist's teeth, the microphone used, response of the tweeter, whatever.
manicm
Well-known member
If there was no exaggerated sibilance before then it’s none of the above, but the biwiring configuration Adam was using. That’s just logical.
TrevC
Well-known member
Yes, I'm delusional. I think it's probably best to end this topic. I'll figure it out for myself. Thanks to everyone who was constructive.
TrevC
Well-known member
Anyone can be mistaken, including me. I presume you didn't reverse the connections to the HF side when you bi-wired, that would make the sound tonally peculiar.
"anyone can be mistaken, including me."
does this mean you are going to try some after market mains cables trevc ?!
Gray
Well-known member
He said mistaken Plus, not stoopid 😀
I can assure you that I have connected each wire to the correct binding post.
I can also assure you that I'm not someone who believes in expensive 'snake oil' cables.
Like I originally said, I decided to bi-wire as an experiment. I used the Canare cable because it's a good quality, non-snake oil cable.
I wasn't expecting better sound quality. The cable, to my ears, sounds the same as cheap 14AWG ofc wire. The only difference, to my surprise, was increased sibilance.
I switched back to the regular 14AWG ofc wire and the sibilance was reduced.
I can't explain why. I know some recordings have sibilance. However, it was more pronounced.
I can also assure you that I'm not someone who believes in expensive 'snake oil' cables.
Like I originally said, I decided to bi-wire as an experiment. I used the Canare cable because it's a good quality, non-snake oil cable.
I wasn't expecting better sound quality. The cable, to my ears, sounds the same as cheap 14AWG ofc wire. The only difference, to my surprise, was increased sibilance.
I switched back to the regular 14AWG ofc wire and the sibilance was reduced.
I can't explain why. I know some recordings have sibilance. However, it was more pronounced.
Al ears
Well-known member
What I cannot understand is where this so called sibilance has appeared from and why you purchased a system which involved it in the first instance.
Neither an amplifier nor cable will produce it so where did it appear from?
Gray
Well-known member
I reckon it might come down to the OPs definition of sibilance.
Most people would say it's an actual distortion.
But some people really dislike pronounced treble. It can still be clean, but it's just too much for them to bear - they describe it as sibilance.
The latter might be the case here.
Of course plenty of people will tell you that no cable could make HF sound more prominent.......but that's another story.
Most people would say it's an actual distortion.
But some people really dislike pronounced treble. It can still be clean, but it's just too much for them to bear - they describe it as sibilance.
The latter might be the case here.
Of course plenty of people will tell you that no cable could make HF sound more prominent.......but that's another story.
Longchops
Well-known member
Adam I think those are the wrong cables, those are 2 into 4 splitter cables right?
To biwire speakers you need 4 outputs on the amp (A+B/L+R) and the same on each speaker.
You're just doubling the length of wire without achieving any separation if I'm understanding this correctly. Maybe some electrical person can tell why this is causing sibilance but obviously your system doesn't like being wired like that and its causing something not to work correctly. Might even be a duff connection on one of the plugs or something, some of the ones on ebay look a bit home made....
To biwire speakers you need 4 outputs on the amp (A+B/L+R) and the same on each speaker.
You're just doubling the length of wire without achieving any separation if I'm understanding this correctly. Maybe some electrical person can tell why this is causing sibilance but obviously your system doesn't like being wired like that and its causing something not to work correctly. Might even be a duff connection on one of the plugs or something, some of the ones on ebay look a bit home made....
I received a call from Cambridge Audio today. They recommended, as you mentioned, running two separate sets of cables connected to both A and B speaker terminals on the amp. They said the amp will still send 80W at 8ohms to the speakers.
As for the sibilance/distortion issue, I have no idea why it became more audible after changing the wire configuration. Maybe it is in my head... all I can tell you is that I immediately noticed it and so did someone else. Switching back to a standard single wire configuration fixed the issue.
As someone who doesn’t buy into cables having their own sound and whatnot, I don’t know what to think.
manicm
Well-known member
What Cambridge Audio told you is what I actually thought, because even if power is halved when switching on both sets, you’re sending all the power to one set of speakers.
My advice is to borrow 4 sets of speaker cables if you can, and this time biwire on both amp and speakers, then evaluate again, if you’re still curious, otherwise stick to the single cable if the sound is satisfying.
Ethics Gradient
Moderator
There is an 'ignore' feature - might be worth a bash...
TrevC
Well-known member
nopiano
Well-known member
An alternative, that I used some years ago, is to by a pre-wired set of bi-wire cables, terminated in two spades or bananas at the amp end, and four at the speakers end. These days I’m less persuaded by that and am happy with single runs. YMMV.
As for the power output, the amp doesn’t strictly ‘send’ anything, which is exactly how I used to think of it too. Apparently, the speaker demands it. Somewhat counter-intuitive, and maybe someone more brainy than me will be able to expand on that. (I can best imagine it that if you shorted the speaker cables the speaker would ‘demand’ the impossible!)
manicm
Well-known member
nopiano
Well-known member
Oops, sorry, I’d quite forgotten, it’s so long since the first post! I think using A and B terminals is a red herring then. It makes no difference whether you use one or both pair of outputs to the amplifier, does it?
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I don't know. The Cambridge Audio tech said that's how they would recommend bi-wiring and not connecting 2 sets of cables to one output.
They said it makes no difference to power output. Any difference in sound quality is subjective.
I'll try using both A and B in a couple of days.
This all stems from nothing other than curiosity and some boredom!
They said it makes no difference to power output. Any difference in sound quality is subjective.
I'll try using both A and B in a couple of days.
This all stems from nothing other than curiosity and some boredom!
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