Bi-wire cable versus 2 sets of cable

First you should always bi-wire if speakers have that capability, even if you have only one amp with one set of 5-way posts, use spades for one pair and bannanas for other. Internal bi-wire is the most cost effective and better than single wire, but it is a compromise to save money. High and low frequencies cannot be completely isolated in a single cable. If money is no object double runs are preferable to internal bi-wire, you can reduce the cost of double runs by using highest quality cable for high freq dirvers and lower quality cable for bass drivers, as bass is never bright and will have less detail loss. (cables must be same design family to do this) For example use AQ Clear for high freq and AQ Midnight for bass........regards Sam

Your wasting your money if you buy 2-sets of cables, with 4 ends on each. Bi-wiring just lowers the resistance level on the wire and the amp. You can go to a 1 size bigger cable and achieve the same results. The best way is to bi-amp, even if you have to go down a size in amp. Horizontal or vertical. Then you can HEAR the DIFFERENCE!!!!!

The guys ahead of me are pretty much correct.If the speaker has bi wire capability,do so.If you can't afford bi wire of a high quality,get one run (keep it as short as you can)for now;later pick up the second run of the same stuf and use the jumpers for now. Stay away from Banana pins.The contact area will be less.and even locking bananas can't be gotten as tight as spades.They are for dealers who have to change equiptment 5 times a day.Try to call your speaker mfg.give him your paticulars Look for his #in the review of any of his brand, in the mags. Some equiptment is sensitive to the length of the run.My first "high end"speaker wire purchase tought me one of the many lessons I've learned the hard way.The dealer said how many feet do you need? He would have sold me 50feet if I could afford it.One at a time I got 10ft runs of Cardas Quadlink.Both runs cost a little over a thousand.I didn't know any better.Later after getting some knowledge,I got a 6ft run of tara labs master;well a single run of this "killed" the bi wire I had.And at only $650 I later got 6ft more.And yes the second run gave me even more.Reach your amp mfg.the same way. most of them are only to glad to talk to people who have bought their product.Almost never go against what the say.Got a story or two on that subject. Dealers fall all over themselves to get to people with the hunger,the money,and not much knowledge. this help any??

Thtman the "main" reason for bi-wire is not to lower resistance, but to reduce distortion in treble and midrange. The high freq cable no longer has to handle magnetic fields caused by the higher current needed to produce bass signal. This is also why double run is preferable to internal bi-wire as it better isolates high freq from distortion. Best of all worlds is bi-amp and bi-wire set-up. Avguy also makes good point that speaker cables should in general be kept reasonably short.

Some, but not all, of the above replies are misleading. There are no hard and fast rules regarding bi-wiring. The best advice I can offer is to listen carefully, without preconceptions. For some speaker/wire/amp combinations, bi-wiring is clearly the way to go. For other combinations it's a waste of money. For what it's worth, in my system I bi-wire and use double runs of cable.