"I think everybody has a different definition of what Shotgun, Bi-wiring, true Bi-wiring etc..."
Who started this ?! Oh yeah - it WAS you, wasn't it, Bucky!
I look at it this way - I need to make the left/right/+/- on my amp connect to the left/right/+/- on my speakers. That's simply 4 conductors of any design. Using simple zip cord, that'd be your basic single wire setup.
If I bi-amp, then I must bi-wire. Now I have 8 outs from the amp, and I need to provide a conductor (again, of any non-specific configuration) to drive the 8 input posts on the speakers (4 ea x 2 speakers).
I can shotgun from a single amp - split out 4 inputs at a speaker from the 2 outputs of the amp, but that's just a fancier way of doing the same basic thing - make left/right/+/- leaving the amp go left/right/+/- in at the speaker. But with a single amp, you can't actually "bi-wire". If I rip my zip cord in half so each side is a separate strand, I'm not bi-wiring, I'm just separating conductors. Just because zip cord is normally built with two conductors, running a separate zip with the ends twisted together to run from amp left plus to the left plus on the speaker doesn't make this a bi-wire, it just makes the two conductors into a single wire, functionally no different than tearing one zip cord in half. And running one separate conductor to the tweeter in and one to the woofer in won't make this bi-wire either, if they both terminate on the same output post on the amp (it would, however, meet my understanding of "shotgun" wiring).
Gawd this does get ugly, doesn't it?
But the point I was getting to there goes to the issue of "true" bi-wiring. Lets not confuse conductors with cables with wires, rather, lets just count the requisite functions. With a standard two channel amp driving a pair of standard speakers, you need left/right/+/-, and we accomplish this with 4 conductors in typically 2 cables. To do otherwise requires additional outputs, hence the bi-amp issue. Now you have 2 sets of left/right/+/-, ergo, you need twice the wiring. But to do this, you typically need to remove the internal crossover on the speaker, so now you're actually in effect working with 4 speakers, each with it's own left/right/+/-. Same thing, just multiple instances.
Whether any of this really gets us better sound - I dunno. I may shotgun my Silverlines just because I can, and when I do I'll let ya'll know how it works out. Meanwhile, I only listen to music, and I am lucky and happy to have what I have!
chas
