bi wiring

some speakers sound better biwired.
Example: most of the B&Ws, some Vandersteen.

For other speakers it may not matter.

There are different types of bi-wire speaker cables.
Shotgun bi-wire speaker cables - 2 separate runs to speakers, but terminated into a single run on the amp end so you don't have to use 2 sets of binding posts.
Example of this cable is Acoustic Zen Satori Shotgun.

Internal bi-wire cables - terminated as a single run on the amp end, internally biwired with 2 pairs of leads for the speaker end.
Example of this cable is Acoustic Zen HologramII, the biwired version.

Then you can always use 2 totally separate speaker cables if you have 2 sets of binding posts on your amp.

Will your speakers benefit from one config over another?
The only way to find out is to try.

Hey Jason, Dont worry about Jeff he is Bi-Polar hehehehe

FWIW, on the few systems I have had which provided for biwiring I could never hear a difference when I was using the same cables (two runs of idential cables), but it sure was a lot of fun to use different cables for the highs and low's as a form of tone control. Now that I've passed that phase I'm back to single runs.

FWIW, not to support pedantry, especially that of English 'teachers', there was an extensive and interesting post on biwiring within the last 6 months well worth reading if you can find it. :-)

I thought it was bi polar?

I'd definately check the med ication

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1. Actually, Chad, I'm neither Bi-polar nor bi-polar nor bipolar. I'm just a nice guy who’s been an audiofool almost 50 years and who tries to help people help themselves and who also knows how to spell and punctuate words that include prefixes.

2. 'Pedantry'? There ARE right and wrongs ways, New. Why not do it correctly?

3. Kal: "...some of Theo's statements are simply not true. For example, "I beleive (sic) that the benefit of bi-wiring (sic) is that a seprate (sic) run from the amp output allows the frequencies to seperate (sic) according (to) demand." Cables cannot do this without a crossover."

Your statement is correct, but the 2 cables are indeed driving a crossover, inside the speaker. The frequencies divide in the cables based on the impedances each is driving, with all frequencies taking the path(s) of least resistance. The 'high' cable is driving impedance that rises as the frequencies decrease and hence passes a lower proportion of lower v. upper frequencies, while the 'low' cable drives higher impedances as the frequencies increase and passes a lower proportion of high frequencies. (This all works the same way in passive biAMPing.)

One distinct advantage to biwiring a speaker system that divides bass from midrange and highs (typically a 3-way) is that this allows one to use a high-gage, very-low-resistance cable on the bass that's also inexpensive. For instance, on bass-only systems, I use home-AC cable composed of four 14g. conductors in a twisted quad. (Picture at http://gallery.audioasylum.com/cgi/wi.mpl?u=30777&f=Speakercable_700w.jpg&w=700&h=391 ; on the left.) The double 14s net to 11g.*, which achieves better driver damping than a smaller-gage cable, and it's VERY inexpensive. One doesn't get that benefit when the speaker's crossover splits frequencies into bass and MR v. treble (as a 2-way usually does), but this split allows one to use VERY-high-quality conductors for treble fairly inexpensively because one pair of conductors is plenty adequate for the low amount of power in the treble. For instance, one could use 22g. 4-nines silver in 18g. Teflon airtubes and get great-sounding treble, better than thru the probably-multiple-copper conductors of more-complex, more-expensive full-range cables.

Trying biwiring can be easy or difficult. Questions abound. Here are two--should I BUY another cable same as mine? What if the cable I borrow is different length than mine? The list goes on and on. Of course it could be easy if a buddy has just the cable one wants to try.

I have heard benefits, mostly increased transparency, from biwiring. They’re subtle but real, at least for me.

Audioquest has a good discussion of cable theory including biwiring (starting on p. 11) on its site... http://www.audioquest.com/pdfs/aq_cable_theory.pdf . Seems to me ALL of us would benefit from reading it.
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* A little tidbit that few of us understand is that every time the same-size conductor count is doubled or halved, the net gage changes by 3. This is easy to remember because it's the same as power measured in deciBels--double or half, change is 3dB.
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