TEACH ME ABOUT BI-WIRE


I see a lot mentioned about bi-wiring. I am not familar with this. I know you must have speakers that can be bi-wired and they are configured for bi-wire by removing a buss bar to seperate speakers and/or crossovers within the cabinet. I have also read that you need to have an amp that has bi-wire capability (two left and two right speakers outputs - and not to be confused with speakers A & B).

Can someone explain what takes place within each speaker when it is set up for bi-wiring? What are the advantages and disadvantages if any? What if my amp only has one set of left and right speakers outputs (but has something called loops for additional amps), Can you accomplish bi-wiring if you had two amps? If so how would it work?
sfrounds
Sedond and Dekay, I admire your patience with the bullies. When Jostler makes claims that bi-wiring makes no difference, and yet claims the scientific high ground he is being fraudulent - and his band of cohorts have been variously guilty of the same thing. Draw the circuits. Assume you have a four core speaker cable and assume each conductor has some resistance. Then assume that each pair and each quad has some other electrical properties such as capacitance and inductance. Draw the circuits for single-wire, internal bi-wire and double bi-wire - and none of these circuits is the same. Therefore for a scientist to claim there is no difference then that scientist has to assume away the importance of the electrical properties of the speaker cable. What kind of scientist is this? These are the same discredited guys that that claim amps and speaker cable are perfect and want you to throw all your money at speakers and drive it with a competent receiver, since it is only the speaker that shows gross distortions by their measurements. This is the same kind of scientist that makes no reality check to his assumption and then has the gall to tell audiophiles that do hear a difference, that they only hear it because they assumed they would hear a difference before listening. Now when I look at that, I reckon the audiophile comes out on top in such a comparison. The so-called scientist looked at his numbers and made an assumption - not bothering to listen with his ears. Yes, I am getting steamed up again, I will bite hard on my lip and receive my whipping now in silence. Just ever-so occasionally I will creep out and point out the arrogant and fraudulent nature of certain posters here who decry others reported experiences and offer none of their own.
Redkiwi: I know how you feel. I personally am getting tired of Black eyed peas with garlic and parsley. They are getting really old and just don't seem to have anything to say at the dinner table anymore. Maybe we will switch to Rhubarb.
I agree. We're back to the same old stew about cables, electrons and so called science "running down hill". Most speaker manufacturers produce bi-wire speakers for a very good reason. In most reasonably assembled stereo rigs, Bi-Wiring sounds better and the speaker manufacturers know it. That's why they design and build them that way. Most people who have tried bi-wiring have had success with it.

Talk about bad wiring, what gear could Beverly Hills 70242 and Stevemj use to reach such conclusions? Does anyone besides me find it odd that they dodge the subject repeatedly and refuse to say what it is? Perhaps bi-wiring makes no difference with their gear. None of them have ever posted their gear or given a listening impression of it; single wire, bi-wire or anything else. If they were to share their experiences of their gear, as the rest of us do, perhaps some of us would take them seriously. I'm sure their gear measures just fine. Personally, I just itchin to read something by these guys about a pre amp or DAC but all I ever see is the same old "wire" posts and little else. Oh! I almost forgot about the "Farewell" forum post where one of them posted that he was leaving because he felt sorry for himself. I don't know about anyone else but I find wire and drama a dull mix.

So come on guys, let's hear it. What gear do you use to validate your scientific theories in the real world?

Your silence doesn't surprise any of us.
Sedond: You say bi-wiring makes your speakers sound better. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't, maybe it's real, maybe it's all imaginary. I don't have any reason to believe that it does (the hypothesis you mentioned doesn't add any weight), but then I believe in keeping high standards to avoid wasting extra money on stuff that doesn't work.

Redkiwi: Your conclusions are faulty. The issue is whether there is real benefit to bi-wiring, not in whether the circuits are the same. There is proven benefit to minimizing the speaker cable resistance between the speaker, especially the woofer, and the amplifier. There is only anecdotal evidence -- no positive results from blind testing -- that bi-wiring improves the sound. Therefore, it's far more likely that joining the wires at the speaker would improve the sound by reducing the series cable resistance through parallel wire paths than separating them into a "bi-wire" arrangement, which doesn't take full advantage of the conductors available.

Jerie: Any component can and should stand on its own performance, regardless of brand or model. Speaker wire, however, has a single purpose: to deliver audio in the form of electrical signals to the speaker. The ideal wire will deliver exactly the same voltage to the speaker as the amplifier produces. No wire is perfect, but it's easy to get close enough for practicality by minimizing the electrical attributes, primarily series resistance but to a much lesser extent shunt capacitance and series inductance, that degrade the signal voltage. That's why speaker cables that work best tend to be as short and fat as possible, regardless of brand.
This is rich. First we have the scientists stating "there is no difference". When I point out that there is a circuit difference, I get "the issue is whether there is a real benefit". Then the same tired old rubbish about blind testing proving something. Unlike your mindless repetition of your belief in blind testing, I cannot be bothered to point out the counter-argument again. Don't you have anything more interesting to say about music than imply nothing exists until it has been proven by a blind test? Why on earth do you think this is a forum for posting the results of blind tests? And your suggestion 702 that the only issue with regard to speaker cables is series resistance is just absurd. All you really deserve as a response is RHUBARB.