To bi-wire or not to bi-wire - your opinion? (1 Viewer)

[Blaine_M]

I'm looking for some opinions on bi-wiring, is it better to bi-wire or not?

 

[John Garcia]

Try a search, it should turn up some info. You may not actually get a 100% answer anyway, since it tends to turn into a debate that never goes anywhere productive.

In my opinion, bi-wiring does yeild a slight improvement, but if you aren't bi-amping, your gains are minimal at best. I always recommend swapping out the included jumpers for some quality wire at the very least.

 

[Blaine_M]

Well, I won't be bi-amping. I'm running off of a Marantz SR5400. I have B&W DM602's for fronts and a CC6 for a center. I use an audioquest wire that has 4 solid copper wires in it. I've done some searches, read a lot of places that argue one way, and some that argue others. Thought I'd see what people here have to say.

 

[Brian L]

Well, since you have the cable in place, you might as well give it a shot. No harm in that, and no $$$$ has to change hands

I have never tried it (I also have a CC6, along with a pair of 604s and 601s), and am somewhat suspicious of the claims, but at the end of the day, your ears are what need to be happy.

BGL

 

[Blaine_M]

Yeah, I was debating on going back to the standard hookup, in otherwords, not bi-wiring. It is hard to know what to think when I read different articles about it arguing both ways. To me the best way to find out is from people who have more experience than I do.

 

[Kevin. W]

I bi-wired for a bit, then went back to a single run and now I'm bi-amping. I picked up some AR Master Series 10AWG(copper/silver coated) from a local discount shop. www.ac4l.com sells the same stuff for cheap. The wires precut to 15-25ft length terminated with banana plugs. If you could take back the audioquest you should be able to pickup the AR wire for much less.

Kevin

 

[Eddie Horton]

John, what do you mean by swapping out the jumpers with wire?

 

[Brian L]

I am not John, but on a bi-amp/bi-wire capable loudspeaker, there is normally a brass shorting bar between the two pairs of binding posts.

These can (and must) be removed to facilitate bi-amping/bi-wiring.

I have read that some feel that replacing this jumpers with high quality speaker cable improves the sound (for when you are NOT bi-wiring/bi-amping).

Never tried it myself.

BGL

 

[John Garcia]

I am using Audioquest Type4 in my 2ch system. My Marantz PM7000 integrated has A-B capability. I ran the tweeters off A and the mids off B and the clarity improved noticably. Then, I went back to just a single run with a piece of the same solid wire in place of the jumpers and they sounded basically the same, which is what I expeced running off the same amp channels.

In order to bi-wire, your speakers need to have two terminals which are normally connected together by jumpers so that each receive the power from the single input. As BrianL notes, these are usually brass and not ideal for signal transfer.

 

[Chu Gai]

Since you apparently have the capabilities to biwire, check out the following post which illustrates a procedure whereby you can determine for yourself if you can audibly hear a difference.

 

[Blaine_M]

I like that idea, but I'm going to have a hard time finding a couple people who will sit though the whole process. I'll see if I can at least get one person for my test. John, I'm not sure what the wire I have is, I know it is audio quest, it is in a blue jacket, got it about 3 years ago. It has solid coper wire in it, instead of the strands wound together. One pair is thicker, I use that on the LF terminals, the other pair is thinner, I use that pair on the HF terminals. I'm tempted to give that AR stuff a try, it's not a bad price at all. I will however try that test first.

 

[Chu Gai]

Its good that you do even if it takes some effort to get the two people (that's what free pizza is for!). I know you've come here looking for advice in this matter perhaps hoping to find an overwhelming consensus by which to base your decision. Most of the evidence amounts to anecdotal and regardless of the walk of life you look at, anecdotal evidence is not evidence by any stretch of the imagination. Now I could tell you it doesn't work, or that the real reason some manufacturers put on biwiring capability is to not alienate some customers (IOW its cheap to do), or even point you to a website that does an electrical analysis illustrating its a wash. You, or others, can point to reviewers with equipment pedigrees that sound impressive and quite expensive. They will say the results are astounding. This places, you, the inquisitive party in a bit of a dilemna.

Sometimes the best thing to do is prove it one way or the other to yourself. The reason the method I outlined is a bit involved, although not terribly so, is to eliminate biases that can occur. If you think about it, the method allows you to do the one thing all the vendors of products tell you that is paramount - Trust Your Ears.

Once you've done this then you'll determine things for yourself. Perhaps it'll make you a convert. Perhaps it will trigger your bullshit detector that will serve you well as you explore this hobby and allow you to make cost effective purchases.

Best of luck.

 

[Blaine_M]

I think my wife would prefer that I do not explore this hobby any more! Can I ask, do you bi-wire Chu? I am starting to wonder if I might be better off just to switch to the heavier wire and single wire it, no more bi-wiring. But I'll attempt a test. Problem is I have lost one of the little short out bars, so I'll have to use wire, my terminals won't take bannanas I don't think, and my wire is solid core wire, so it will be a challenge to get a good connection with that many wires running into each terminal.

 

[Brian L]

Your B&W's will take bananas (if they are like mine).

You just need to pry the little center cap out of the binding post. They won't take dual-bananas, but singles will work fine.

BGL

 

[Blaine_M]

Ok, I didn't realize that. What I'll have to do is make the 'short' connection with a short wire using bananna connections, this will be for me 'test' only though. If I do go back to single wiring, I'll be getting new wire.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Chu, by chance did anyone take you up on the offer you made? It does not look like it from the thread, but I don't want to assume.

 

[Chu Gai]

Damned if I know. If people did it, they didn't write about it.

 

[Blaine_M]

Chu, do you bi-wire?

 

[Chu Gai]

No, but this ain't about you being like me or like anyone else. You've got the means to try it and you've got a reasonable methodology that will give you a reliable, unbiased result. Come on, its like when you were a kid in wonder of the world, curious to see what and why. It'll take you a couple of hours if that and you'll gain something that no amount of opinions can give you - knowledge.

 

[Blaine_M]

I know, I was just curious.

Here's a good web site to check out that describes it mathematically.....


http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_pa/...ire/Page1.html