Benefits and Drawbacks to Shotgun Speaker Cables

I think the only benefits to the "shotgun" type of bi-wiring is neatness and less cost. Richard Vandersteen specifically recommends TRUE bi-wiring for his 2Ce and better speakers. I've recently tried both on the Vand. 5s, and the 4 separate wires per speaker is better sounding. The shotgun cables sounded warmer, somewhat more veiled, more congested and less dynamic-- especially with complex music than the true bi-wired system.

The differences were noticeable but not dramatic, and the warmth of the shotgun wires was nice with some music. I was using Syn. Res. Sig. #2 cables vs the new Sig. #10 (shotgun)-- which is the replacement model for the #2. Cheers. Craig

This is a term that i've heard used with various meanings. Can someone please explain what the "accepted" meaning of "shotgun cables" is ?

I've been told that "shotgunning" cables is when you take all of the conductors ( pos and neg ) of one speaker cable and use them for one polarity and then use all of the conductors of an identical cable for the other polarity. You then have two individual but identical "barrels" side by side ( ala a shotgun ) with twice the "firepower" ( gauge ) that you would normally have by splitting the conductors of one cable between polarities.

Is this correct or am i off in left field on this one ??? Sean
>

Sean I think you've got it. Shotgun configuration is simply two wires that end with one termination. So for my Red terminal on my right speaker I have ONE run of Shotgunned cables and the same for the black. So I have 4 cables per speaker. I've noticed a HUGE difference in sound quality. I'm not talking a bit here... My system has jumped on to the resolution bandwagon :)

Garfish, I think you're a little confused about 'Shotgun' because this method of cabling actually doubles the cost because you've got double the cable for each run. And there's no Bi-wiring/Bi-amping going on in my system.

Sean, you are correct, Garfish is referring to true double bi-wire rather than shotgun I beleive, as opposed to a single bi wire configuration. For example if you used kimber8(one strand on each side) and seperated out some of the conductors for the "high" and "low" in a single pair(this would require being careful to get this right(Audio Quest and other companies do this), that could or would be single or internal bi-wire. True bi-wire would have two runs per side and shot gun would have 4 per side on a bi-wire, both the black and blue in Kimber (8tc)would be grouped together and not seperated as + or -. shot gun can also refer to a non bi-wire configuration and use two seperate runs per side. Dont confuse this with MIT shotgun which is different. Clear as mud?