Recently, I've read quite a few posts that disclaim the benefit of bi-wiring. The claim is that for bi-wire capable speakers, there is no noticeable difference between bi-wired and single-wired connection, assuming good quality jumper cabbles are used for single-wired configuration. Then, is there a move from high end speaker manufacturers to forget about the bi-wiring option and just provide single wire for their high-end speakers? (Well, bi-amping is another issue, but let's not consider bi-amping.)
I don't think it's accurate to say that bi-wiring is out of vogue. I have my speakers passively bi-amped, and tri-wired with Audioengine Gibralter cables (one regular set to bass, and one bi-wire set to mid and tweeter).
Everyone said it would make no difference...but it made an audible difference to me. :-) Probably because I doubled my speaker cables.
John, envision a simple two-way biwired speaker, the speaker having a capacitor in series with the tweeter and an inductor in series with the woofer. An essentially identical full-range VOLTAGE waveform will propagate from the amplifier to both sets of terminals on the speaker, as I indicated above. However, since the tweeter and its associated capacitor are in series with the wires that provide a path between the amplifier terminals and the high frequency terminals on the speaker, low frequency CURRENTS cannot flow through those wires. Whether that capacitor is within the speaker or "before" it makes no difference with respect to that current.
Likewise with respect to the low frequency section of the speaker. The inductor will prevent high frequency currents from flowing through the wires connecting the amplifier to the speaker's low frequency terminals.
One can hook a loudspeaker up to your supposed treble run and signal will be full range to loudspeaker.
Yes, because the full range speaker will have a low impedance across the full frequency range. Whereas in the biwire situation the impedance looking into the high frequency terminals will be very high at low frequencies (resulting in little or no current flowing at those frequencies), and the impedance looking into the low frequency terminals will be very high at high frequencies (resulting in little or no current flowing at those frequencies).
Or simple swap of treble run to woofer would prove my point.
Low frequency currents will flow through whichever wires are connected to the low frequency speaker terminals, and high frequency currents will flow through whichever wires are connected to the high frequency terminals.
Signal is the same on both runs unless split by active or passive crossover before loudspeaker. One can hook a loudspeaker up to your supposed treble run and signal will be full range to loudspeaker. Or simple swap of treble run to woofer would prove my point.
08-23-11: Johnk You have the same signal on both runs of biwire. The treble and bass do not just travel on the cable run you pick for them unless actively filtered.
In a bi-wire arrangement the current and the power corresponding to the high frequency and low frequency spectral components of the signal do indeed travel on the cable run that is picked for them, although the voltage waveform that propagates through both runs will be essentially the same.
The high pass section of the speaker's crossover will block (or at least greatly reduce) the low frequency currents that would otherwise flow through the wires connected to its terminals. Likewise, the low pass section of the speaker's crossover will block (or at least greatly reduce) the high frequency currents that would otherwise flow through the wires connected to its terminals.
Your comment would be applicable if the jumpers were left in place while bi-wire cables were being used.
Hi Al, I read the statement you provided by Israel Blume and I find his arrogance overwhelming. I would like to add, Israels statement is only another opinion and I hardly think speaker manufacturers are designing crossovers that require biwiring because they do not know how to design a proper crossover or because they want cable manufacturers to sell more cables.
Stereophile's review of the Coincident Super Conguest Series II is an interesting read.
I had also tried bi-wiring with different sets of cables. Clear Day shotgun and Signal cable. My friend always liked the sound of Signal cable on woofer and Clear Day on tweeter because such setup produced deeper base and clear mid/high. The reverse setup produced more tight base and a bit dull mid/treble. I still preferred single wire with Clear Day cable alone because with biwire setup the base was a bit muddy and slow to my taste. Anyway, it was fun to play with biwiring. Even biamping with VK200/VK60.
I do not bi-wire, but side-step the issue with those kinds of speakers I own by passing a single wire through both terminals to bridge. Hate the jumpers thing.
Good idea. If going with single wires in that configuration I would do exactly the same.
Although my current speakers in use are designed for single wiring, bi-wiring benefited my previous speakers compared to single wiring with a DIY silver wire jumper.
I have always bi-wired my Avalon Avatars. I've never had 2 pairs of identical speaker cables, at least not premium grade. I run the better cables on the tweeters, regardless of guage. My Avatars always sound better, this way.
I used two pair of Clear Day shotgun cables to bi-wire. I found the low end to be a little better. This was probably because in doing this I doubled the size of the cables.
Thanks for all responses. It's been a while, but I had tried Clear Day Shotgun cables, both biwire and single wire with double core. Price was the same. I could not quite notice the difference between the two. However, both cables were better than other cables that I had. The maker of the Clear Day cables suggested to use double core shotgun (single wire), and that is what I use now. I've wondered since then whether biwire was the result of another voodoo science or not. Looks like there is no consensus on this subject, like many other areas in this hobby. My system is BAT vk60, vk200, vk30 Arcam FMJ 23 CD Tyler Linbrook signature systems, Tyler reference monitor Clear Day silver IC, shotgut speaker cables Signal cable silver IC, single wire speaker cables
Alan Yun of Silverline told me his (or my) Preludes were more "coherent" when single wired. He also warned me not to lose the jumpers as they were costly. Of course I biwired them initially (after all, what does HE know?), and after listening for a couple of weeks (and since I hadn't lost the jumpers yet) I went back to single wired. The result was my learning the definition of "coherent", as he was 100% correct. With these speakers anyway...also, I have no desire to replace the little gold plated solid jumpers as I firmly believe they are the optimum connection between the posts. Any other options like using the same wire as the speaker IC, or spending big bucks on a two inch "jumper", seem VERY silly.
I do not bi-wire, but side-step the issue with those kinds of speakers I own by passing a single wire through both terminals to bridge. Hate the jumpers thing.
I think a lot of this has to do with just being concerned about good speaker wires. Someone who is going to bi-wire their speakers is spending extra. Usually bi-wire should be and is lower gauge or thicker before they terminate. This heavier wire should provide better sound. The jumpers provided by the speaker company can be fairly thin. Not good. The jumpers don't provide the continuity that you would want if you purchased expensive speaker wires. Spend a grand on speaker wires that end up going through a ten buck jumper?
My Daedalus Ulysses speakers, and I assume other Daedalus Audio models, have only one pair of terminals.
Also, these comments from Coincident Technologies' Israel Blume may be of interest. I take no position on those comments myself, but they certainly seem worthy of consideration based on their source.
08-22-11: Bifwynne Ok, well if bi-wiring is now out of vogue, what can you do if you have bi-wired dedicated speaker cables?? My cables are Kimber and they were not cheap. I guess one could simply let two of the four connects just hang loose, assuming they are taped up to prevent shorting the amp, but for some reason, that just doesn't seem like a good idea.
A logical thing to try would be connecting them in parallel (i.e., both + wires to the + speaker terminal, and both - wires to the - speaker terminal). That will have the effect of substantially reducing overall resistance and inductance. That effect, of course, may or may not be audibly significant or subjectively preferable.
Then, is there a move from high end speaker manufacturers to forget about the bi-wiring option and just provide single wire for their high-end speakers?
Note: if the cross-over is a series implementation, as opposed to a parallel implementation, there can only be one set of terminals. Series crossovers are in the minority, but some manufacturers prefer them.
Bi wiring benefits are not supported by fact just subjectively. So YMMV if you hear improvement. But biamping is a very useful option for some and the only reason I use dual binding posts on KCS models. I do think its the reason most speaker manufacturer offer dual posts. I look at it as buy wire a benefit to cable company's.
If you have two sets of speaker connections you can still tune the system with single wireing by choice of jumpers and which set of terminals you connect the speaker cables to. I have found it is usually better to use the trebel posts but there is a difference in sound so try both,
Ok, well if bi-wiring is now out of vogue, what can you do if you have bi-wired dedicated speaker cables?? My cables are Kimber and they were not cheap. I guess one could simply let two of the four connects just hang loose, assuming they are taped up to prevent shorting the amp, but for some reason, that just doesn't seem like a good idea.
It depends on the speaker. Dunlavys sound better with single wire. Vandersteens sound better biwired. You can't say one is better than the other for all speakers.
Bi-wiring is a great tunning tool if your going to use different types of cable on each binding post. You can tune the tweeter just to your liking and also the mids with different type wire going to each.
Wilson and some Sonus Faber are single wired, I think the higher end Focal also; my Mini Utopia was single wired. I am sure there are others. Martin Colloms, among others, has suggested that single wireing is better in most cases.
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