Does anyone use a different cable for the neg run?


I remembered that Richard Vandersteen liked to run two separate runs of speaker wire on his speakers, in a rather unconventional way.

Which is to sum the pos and neg at the pos amp end nand use the pos and neg to power the upper pos and lower pos taps in bi wired speakers.

The negative return run is the same, both ends summed at the amp, while the pos and neg run of this cable goes to the neg upper and lower speaker posts.

So you still need 4 runs of wire, but the wire isn't split into two at the upper posts or the lower speaker posts-one half pos, one half neg, as is the norm.

I tried this on my speakers,took out the jumpers and for the second runs of the neg returns I used 12 guage solid core romex.

The results were positive,and the increase in detail, less hash, and more rounded full body images has made a believer out of me.
I don't know if the DIY neg runs of solid core or just the doubling up of the Nordost as POS only signal wires is the reason for the improvemnt , but until I can try another pair of Nordost for the Neg returns, I'm sticking with this set up.
It's like I've made a major gear swap, and it cost me nothing.

I was wondering if others who use the Vandersteen bi wiring arrangement or one using disimilar wires for the neg return have anything to add to this?

Also I would appreciate any opinions about why this shouldn't work or that it is messing with the function of my amp or speakers .

Feel free to tell me this is a bad practise,but in the interim I am enjoying the best sound I've ever had from my system.
lacee
Vandersteen is my favourite speaker and I have several pair. They do sound a lot better with a double biwire setup. More so than with any other speaker (I believe Vandersteen was the first one to use biwiring.) Even if you have to go with less expensive cables, it will still sound much better. Audioquest is a great choice. 2 separate runs of type 8 or cv8 will sound great with Vand. I would also, highly recommend not mixing cable type and use 2 pairs of exactly the same cable. Just to note, everything that I just mentioned above, I have actually done myself. (I didn't just read some magazine articles) I speak from actual experiance.
So the wire configuration is called double bi-wire?

At one time it was shot gun.

Anyway I've also experimented with one single 12 guage romex return run,with the one wire running thru both neg speaker posts, and it wasn't as good as two separate runs.

I also tried to run the returns with some other copper flat wire returns,again not as good as two separate return runs of 12 guage solid core.

So my conclusion is that it's not just doubling up of the Heimdals that is working the magic, what you use for the neg return seems to matter more, which I find intersting.
I am not using Vandersteens, I have Ref 3A Grand Veena, that I was running as single wired with the Nordost Heimdal and Norse jumpers in the Nordost diagonal speaker wire configuration.

This has proven to be quite good and the best wiring set up so far after numerous DIY and name brand wiring attempts.

Why the double runs of 12 guage solid core return at less than half the length of the Heimdals(2Mtr) works best is something I am trying to find an answer for.

I know it flies in the face of convention,and usual audiophile practises of keeping everything in neat and tidy packaging,but I can't be the only fellow doing this am I?

Which is why I posted,and asked if this would harm my amp, which after almost a week it has yet to do.It doesn't run any warmer(tube amp) no extra buzz or noise, just better performance, and all attributted to the return more than the doubling up of the Nordost.

Has the neg return run been taken for granted over the years?To my ears it has.
It's always been the duplicate of the positive run and we've accepted that is the way it's supposed to be.

So if others with bi wired speakers are curious,give this a try and post.

If you are already doing this also post.

If you are a cable manufacturer please post and provide some answers,proving or disproving what I have stated.

Until I can source another identical pair of Heimdals and run double biwire or shot gun to compare,,I have to say that the way things are now is more than satisfactory.

I should add that in the course of two years I've tried numerous name brand bi-wired cables and DIY speaker wire configurations and hybrids of both, and differnt jumpers, and non came close to this combo.
I thought shot gun was when then amp side had 2 connections and the speaker side had 4 connections?