Does Bi-wiring improve sound substantially? (1 Viewer)

[Raj Kumar]

Hello:
I have paradigm monitor 7 speakers and currently I have not bi-wired it. From what I gather from various post, I could not come to a conclusion if there is a substantial improvement in sound.
Currently I have a lowend receiver(JVC 8010) but I have
bought (finally) Denon 4802. So, I am willing to bi-wire it *if* it is worth it.

As always, thanks for the info.

Raj kumar

 

[Mark Rich]

I have my Paradigm 60's bi-wired.
Noticed little if any improvement by going with bi-wiring. I did notice a significant improvement when I previously had them Bi-amped.

 

[Mat_M]

Although I've never tried bi-wiring, I'm HIGHLY skeptical that it would make a difference.

 

[Kevin C Brown]

I can hang wit dat! More improvement with bi-amping than bi-wiring.

Stupid question time: to me, bi-wiring is similar to just using a heavier gauge wire.

Anyone know off hand, say if I bi-wire with 16 gauge, what does that equal? 12 gauge? 8 gauge? (Has to do with cross-sectional area, but I have no idea what the relationship is.)

 

[Jonathan M]

Kevin,

No, biwiring is NOT the same as using double the gauge, unless you keep the terminal shorting plates on the speakers.

If you have a 16 gauge run going to the tweeter section only, then it sees the same impedance in the wire as it would when it had the woofer section of the xover in parallel with it.

There are some explanations as to why biwiring could be an improvement due to the reduced currents in the separate wires in a biwire setup, but whether or not this is audible is debatable. Obviously the longer the runs are, the more noticeable any improvement may be. Disadvantages are twice the amount of wire required.

As for Kevin's question, the relationship is that Wire Gauge is the resistance of the wire per 1000ft in decibels, where 10 gauge cable has resistance 1 ohm. (ie every increase the gauge by 3, doubles the resistance)

So, 2x 16gauge runs will be around a single gauge run as far as DC resistance goes. As above, this is only if you have shorted the twin terminals on the speaker!

If you biwire, you should do so with the same diameter cable as you would have single wired - especially for the woofer, where it matters most. (The tweeter section doesn't matter as much, as smaller currents flow in this wire)

 

[Chu Gai]

double the gauge, subtract 3...2-16's gives you pretty close to 13. don't waste your time or money. better ways to stimulate the economy

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Cool...