Bi-wired vs Single Termination
I got into this Bi-wire thing when I got my Vandersteen 5A's. Richard Vandersteen says and I have become a believer that to bi-wire you must have 2 totally seperate pair of cables - 8 wires for a bi-wired stereo pair. Go to the Vandersteen website where you will see an explanation, however, my ears tell me that he's correct. Jumpers are a total waste of time. |
This is a very interesting subject. I was always one to say two separate runs, biwired and combined at the amp end, was the best way to go. Jumpers seemed to be a band-aid solution. But then I became enamored with Synergistic Research cables (namely their Tesla active line). Ted And the folks at SR are actively (no pun intended) pushing for an integrated jumper architecture, not two wires. Read their explanation here: >SR biwire theory |
For some reason that link got corrupted http://www.synergisticresearch.com/page/cables/speaker_cable/integrated_frequency_termination |
I had N804, and did bi-wire for a while and went with a better cable not bi-wired, Granted I went to a much better cable, I never noticed a difference when bi wire was used on the 804N. I did bi amp and yes big difference, how ever, I sold one of my amps and used it to start the upgrade of power cords and interconnects and power cords to all Shunyata. When I was done the less powerful amp is the one I kept since it was better quality. The system had suprisingly more power and much better sound with one amp and not bi-wired. I really don't get it but this made me a believer in cables and Shunyata. The sound overall was much better and warmer for sure. The bass was much better as well, wierd but this was my experience. Spend as much as you can to get a good speaker cable not bi wire and upgrade the jumpers to match you speaker cable if you can. Don't forget though, its more important in my experience to have good power cords and interconnects first before the speaker wire is worried about. I started with the power cord for the cdp and i-conn, then worked my way to the speaker. I added one at a time and listened for a while to make sure what I was getting from each addition. Beerdraft |
