What is internal and external biwire?

Zu Cable www.zucable.com Julians in a "shotgun style" bi-wire are better in my tests than the Q10. The Shotgun style is basically a double run of cable terminated together on the AMP end. Please note that the guys at Zu had previous work at many of the big name companies. They have a quality product and great customer service. Check out the auctions here and at ebay, they often have cables up at a good discount. maybe you can find the WAX (their hi-end) in a bi-wire, in your price range.

As already stated, the "shotgun" bi-wire pattern has two completely separate runs of wire that are joined together at the amplifier end -- think of it like a giant "V". The internal bi-wire involves using a single run of wire (usually braided) and separating the braids or wires into two terminations at both the amp and speaker ends.

Richard Vandersteen, in an interview with one of the major audio mags, talked about his research into the merits of bi-wiring (recommended for the Vandy 3A and Model 5 speakers), and stated that the primary benefit of using a true (shotgun) bi-wire is to minimize the effects of interplay between the electrical fields in the two sets of wires. Apparently, this ensures that the mid/high frequency drivers get a clean signal that is "uncontaminated" by interaction with the low frequency signal. Vandersteen also said that speakers with dual crossovers/speaker posts will benefit the most from shotgun bi-wiring.

Jhiminsue - you can try out the Wax wires for 30 days which is a nice option but you'll have to get the boys @ Zu to make the leads longer than their stock version for your 4B-ST if you are going to use their copper spades. You can't hook both the terminations into the binding posts at the same time when using the spades. They can also supply WBT connectors which is what I ended up using. As we both own the same amp you'll understand where I'm coming from. The Wax wires are very good at what one can typically buy them at here at auction but were bettered by my reference cables - still an excellent cable and I can attest that the boys @ Zu are great to work with.

I was going to edit my post above to include some more info, but will include the comments here:

I have used Kimber 8TC wire in a shotgun bi-wire configuration for the past 5 years, and just recently changed my speaker wire for a different brand/model. I think Kimber 8TC is one of the best values in high-end speaker cable. You can use Kimber 8TC to make an internal bi-wire setup, but I do not recommend it, since you will lose the primary advantage of bi-wiring. An alternative is to use the 8TC for the bass/low frequency leg of the bi-wire, and Kimber 4TC for the mid/high frequency leg. This makes an excellent bi-wire combo, and will also save you some money.

Before you make a final decision about the Kimber 8TC, may I suggest that you also consider Alpha-Core Goertz speaker cable? Allthough the Goertz MI2 cable is a bulkier cable than the 8TC, it has some technical advantages over the 8TC, and is actually a bit cheaper and may be a better "fit" with certain low-impedance speakers. For more info about Alpah-Core's Goertz cable, go to their Web site at: http://www.alphacore.com/

A written description of the difference between internal and external biwiring can be very confusing. But to visualize, the external method just means that there are four separate wires going to four separate terminals on each speaker, and of course they come together as a pair at the amp end.

Internal bi-wire has the usual two wires going to each speaker, but with four leads at the speaker end for bi-wire hookup. The internal type is just used for the sake of better appearance, ie it eliminates two wires to each speaker.

But as Scott above notes, R. Vandersteen does not consider internal bi-wiring as beneficial as true (4 wires per speaker) external bi-wiring. If you really want to get confused, look up some of the archived posts on this subject. Good Luck. Craig