Every time I’ve experimented on my Tannoys, they’ve sounded better bi-wired. They’re an ideal use case for symmetric 50/50 bi-wire: a 2-way with 2nd order crossover at 1.1 kHz, which gives a much closer split of high/low energy than most speakers.
My conceptions from these experiments are as follows:
- When biwiring I like at least 12awg per half (12awg high + 12awg low), or else the sound is not as rich & weighty as I prefer
- I like a lot of silver (50% or more) in the cable, or I start to miss detail (especially with Audioquest cables)
- When not bi-wiring, high quality jumpers absolutely matter. Tannoys came with thin Acrolink jumpers, which are supposed to be good quality but sound awful. I also have some thick VanDenHul jumpers which sound decent-ish. But Audioquest’s Jupiter jumpers (pure silver) are best of all.
I tried AQ Thunderbird Zero (100% copper), without matching biwire cable, and it didn’t work well for me, even with the premium Jupiter jumpers - I was missing too much detail versus my older silver cables. I’d like to explore the new AQ line with proper bi-wire partner cables, but quite honestly the Thunderbird Zero experience damped my enthusiasm. The hyped "Zero" tech wasn’t enough to make up for that, at least. Also they have a real problem with these new braids going hairy/fuzzy and looking like crap :(
