Turning bi-wired cable back to conventional? (1 Viewer)

[Martice]

I am switching speakers and my current speakers give the option of bi-wired or conventional stereo wired( one left and one right) configurations. However, my new speakers only allow for stereo wired configuration. What is the quickest way to turn my bi-wired cables back into conventional stereo cables?

 

[Steve Young]

Martice, simple, just put both + leads under the + binding post and the - leads under the - post of your new speakers. The 2 wires will be paralleled then.

Steve

 

[Robin Smith]

Are your speaker wires bare, banana plugs or spades?

If bare: go with the above.

Of course, if you have banana plugs you can't do that. My banana plugs have the ability to plug into each other, i.e. I can "stack them and plug the first red into the speaker and the second red into the first. If thats not possible i don;t know how to solve it

If spades: just screw the terminal down on top of the pair, sandwiching them.

I am going to guess you have banana plugs that don't plug into each other (which would be the most common in a decent cable). If this is the case, I am stumped, other than to say you should not not bi-wire any more and only need to hook up one pair of the bi-wire cables (and thus no longer bi-wire)

If your previous bi-wiring included bi-amping, surely you can't do this anymore if your speakers are not bi-wireable.

Good luck,

Robin

 

[Brian Bunge]

If there are bananas you could simply cut them off and add new ones. Shouldn't be a big deal. I still don't quite understand the reasoning behind bi-wiring (from the consumer's standpoint, that is). I've not heard a difference. Bi-amping however, does have much greater possibilities.

Brian

 

[Martice]

My cables have spade termination. How about me soldering the spades in a stacked formation. It would be the same as stacking them but with out the possiblity of them coming apart. IS this approach possible or advisable?

 

[Robin Smith]

If they are spades, just stack 'em and tighten the post down snugly. No need to solder or anything. Just make sure the spades are flat (i.e. not bent) and they will make good contact with each other and the speaker post. Also, put them on opposite sides of each other (i.e. one wraps around the post with its cable at 3 o'clock, the other with its cable at 9 o'clock. I use DJ equipment and frequently you stack more than one spade on a grounding post for example. I have never had a problem.

With respect to the general concept of bi-wiring, I am inclined to agree that there is probably very minimal gain to be had in bi-wiring alone. You would probably be better off taking the money you spend on two seperate sets of cables (per speaker) and buying a better single set.

Are the bi-wired cables you all together (i.e. one cable run to the speaker, with the four cables in the one run? If not, just dump one set of the cables. Its all going back to one amp anyway, right?

Thanks

Robin Smith

 

[Martice]

Hi Robin. Unfortunately they are internally bi-wired. SO I guess I will be stacking them instead of seperating them.

Thanks