Vandersteen and NOT BI WIRE---Your thoughts


I have the Quatro's---powered by CJ ET 250 S and ET 5 Pre--in spite of the advice from many, I find that speakers simply sound cleaner with high end speaker wire, and bridging to the bass. I'd love to hear the thoughts of others. My current set up sounds clean and clear in the mid---no muddiness--in between with the bass--generally better sound. (previous bi wire was Audio Comets) And I'm really liking it. Would welcome all input as I'm searching for the best speaker wire that would bring out the best in these speakers-- pro or con and advice related to bringing system to "next level"--thanks--
bluesnbike1954
Vandersteen himself recommends bi-wiring, and not bi-amping. For a discussion of the worth and results of bi-wiring dial up the Vandersteen website. The best results are for seperate plus and minus cables which translate to 4 cables for each speaker. The cables that are 2 on the amp end and then split to 4 on the speaker end are not nearly so good.
I have Vandersteen 5s and use what is commonly referred to as Double Bi-Wire (DBW). To be honest, I've never considered anything else, because as Stringreen says, it's what Vandersteen recommends. I've spoken with Richard V (once) and in that conversation got an impression of a no-nonsense guy who gives good advice. Specifically, I asked a question that implied having to spend more dough, and essentially was told, "save your money." Given that perspective, I don't think he'd recommend DBW if he didn't feel there was a distinct advantage. . . but I reiterate I haven't tested the alternative! Been perfectly happy with a pair of Audioquest Pikes Peaks.
My 5As are single biwired*. I use Sonic Craft's 4-conductors-per-frequency-band formula, and the system sounds VERY good. SC's Jeffrey Glowacki recommends and sells Neotec solid-conductor, OCC-copper and OCC-silver (in Teflon) wire, with double strands of 18g. copper (= 15g. per positive or neutral) on the lower frequencies and one 18g. copper and one 23g. silver (= c. 17-1/2g.) on the high frequencies. I wound my first sets of these types of cables for my highly improved Audio Physic Avanti IIIs but had him wind the pair for the 5As, as arthritis in my hands makes if very difficult for me to get a tight-enough wind. I terminated these with AQ direct-silver-over-copper spades and then wound some 24g. conductors within and also around the 2 bundles to create a dielectric-bias system (copied from AQ). This cable is indeed more transparent than the combination of AQ Rocket88-plus-added-Neotec I started the 5As with.

I believe there is some advantage of keeping the upper-frequency and lower-frequency magnetic fields separated, and I also believe that conductor size and material can be wisely chosen for high- v. low-frequency signals.

BUT...if you system sounds good to you, use what you have.

BTW, if I were to start over with factory-finished speakercable, I'd choose AQ's Comet, one of their double-bundle, 'Flat Rock'-series cables that uses 3 copper conductors and 1 silver conductor per frequency bundle.

http://www.audioquest.com/

* Personally, I think having 2 pairs of spades under the amp's bindingposts would sound worse than having one pair feeding both sets of conductors, but I'm no GEA so probably couldn't hear any differences. :-)
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I'm using Audioquest Slate in a bi-wire configuration, with small spades on the speaker ends (terminated by Audio Advisor). The Audioquest has the runs in the same jacket, but the quad configuration should ensure that there is little magnetic interaction between the runs. Sounds great to me.