Advantages of bi-wire?

A very simple, free test to determine if you would be likely to hear the difference bi-wiring makes.

If your speaker is bi-wire capable, simply switch the posts used to feed the speaker. i.e. If you use the bass posts and a jumper to the Mid/Tweeter, switch it around and feed the Mid/tweeter and jump to the bass. I'll bet there are some audiophiles who have never tried that.

What you're doing is testing the difference the jumper in the signal path makes, and in my experience almost universally, if the jumper is not a high end cable, the results are uglier for the "non-wired" driver(s).

If you cannot hear the difference, then you won't likely hear the difference in bi-wiring. If you can tell a distinct difference/improvement on the drivers fed the cable directly, then you likely will likely hear a difference bi-wiring. Then you have to determine if it's worth the cost of the extra cable. With cables running the gammut from affordable to obnoxious, you likely could find something appropriate.

Hi Lynne,

Besides the possibility that biwiring will not be helpful in many cases, some prior threads make clear that it can sometimes result in significant degradation of the sound.

If your search of the archives did not turn up the following threads, I think you'll find them to be of interest. Three different people reported that in their systems biwiring resulted in significant bass loss, which was even measurable in one case. Near the end of the threads, I offered a possible explanation:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?cspkr&1247245568

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?cspkr&1247016622

Also, the following papers by Steve Nugent of Empirical Audio, who participates here as Audioengr, explain some speaker cable effects that might occur at ultrasonic and rf frequencies, that would be affected by biwiring. Which in some cases could conceivably have audible consequences via their effects on the amplifier.

http://www.empiricalaudio.com/computer-audio/audio-faqs/bi-wiring-speaker-cables

http://www.empiricalaudio.com/computer-audio/audio-faqs/are-cable-resonances-real

Although one could debate the likelihood that a lot of what Steve describes would be audibly significant, I think his papers get across the idea that biwiring can call into play some subtle technical effects that are essentially unpredictable.

Best regards,
-- Al

Douglas_schroeder echos my experience when determining whether or not I was going to bi-wire.

With my ProAc D2's the results are convincingly positive. A single run is a downgrade.

I went from using single-wire Analysis Plus Oval 9 with gold plated jumpers on my Unity Audio Signature 1's to shotgun biwire Acoustic Zen Sartori. Huge difference for the better-improved bass extension and slam, better separation of instruments and voices, improved clarity and detail. Now how much of the improvement was due to the biwiring or simnply ugrading to a better cable is the question.--Mrmitch