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Why bi-wiring is bad

From a link at the Chris Van-Haus website:
THE DISADVANTAGE WITH BI-WIRE

One thing that happens when you biwire your loudspeakers is that the input of the high- and the low-pass filters are fed with different input signals. The difference is a result of the high frequencies and the low frequencies being forced to travel different paths, perhaps through different types of cables, but under all circumstances through cables who have seen different loads (a tweeter with a high pass filter has a completely different impedance response compared to a woofer with a low pass filter!).

What happens is that the drivers will work less good together than when their filter halves were fed with equal signals. The result is a generation of more static and stochastic phase error sounds at different directions from the loudspeaker. The stochastic phase error sounds appear because there may be different types of unlinearities in the low- and high-frequency paths.

What does this sound like? Well, usually, just as you may expect from physics, it appears as a change in the reproduction of space and sound stage. Often, the first impression is that the "biwired" sound presents extended "dimensions", more "air", and is more "living". The impression after a week or month, however, is that all recordings sound very much alike, and the "airiness" appears on all records. It does not even sound like air anymore, instead more like a slime that pollutes every record you play. No wonder, since it is not a real, recorded quality but a "speaker characteristic" added to all reproduced material. "Sameness" is another word for it.

I just went back to bi-wiring over the weekend. The first thing I noticed was cymbal-like instruments shimmer much more. Secondly the bass now seemed to be less perhaps due to the greater high frequency information.
On orchestra music the orchestra is now well behind the speakers instead of right at the speaker. Like the article said, this may be a phase or time shift error and the depth may become wearing over time.
Finally there is slighlty better separation between instruments. It's easier to pick out each instrument.
cdc
psychicanimal
1,738 posts
 
If you ask the wrong question, you are likely to get the right answer to the wrong issue.

This is taken from the Cobalt Cables website:

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BI-wiring is a technique becoming quite popular in speaker applications. However, in our opinion, there are only a few situations where BI-wiring makes sense, and MANY situations where BI-wiring is just hype. Here are a few "qualifiers" to tell if BI-wiring makes sense for you:

• Your amplifier or receiver AND your speakers have two distinct sets of terminals per channel.

• You are running higher than average (200W+) power to each BI-wired channel.

• You are running longer than average (20 ft.+) cable runs to each channel.

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I have orederd a pair of Bi-wireable Wharfedale Diamond Anniversary edition and do want to experiment w/ them, since they were $78 a pair brand new.

I also have a pair of Swans M1 which have separate crossover boards and only one set of binding posts. The manufacturer does not recommend Bi-wiring. They have bi-wireable speakers to satisfy the demand for such.

Time will tell...
sean
6,231 posts
 
I think that bi-wiring can allow one to tailor the sound to their liking via selecting different cables for top and bottom. It may also reduce series resistance, which is never a bad thing.

I also think that using different cables can introduce time delay distortions between the top and bottom end. This has to do with dielectric absorption, geometries, etc... Not all cables pass the signal at the same rate or "speed". This is called "velocity factor" and some are much "faster" than others.

I do believe that one can hear and measure the differences in response when doing TRUE bi-wiring ( two completely separate and isolated runs of cable per speaker ). These differences becomes more apparent as the cable designs become more divergent from one another and lengths of the cables increase.

I also believe that one can hear and measure differences between various single speaker cables within a system. I also believe these differences can be of quite a great magnitude under specific conditions. Some of these variances might be large enough that they may almost equal the sonic differences that occur when one tries different speaker placement.

The bottom line is that one makes their decision, likes the end result, hates the end result, can't tell a difference either way, etc.... Do what you want to do and enjoy your music and system. Who cares what anybody else thinks. It should all be done for fun, education and entertainment. If we can do this and share our results, we multiply the fun, education and entertainment factor. Sean
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esun
32 posts
 
I have a set of Martin Logan Aerius i's. I have had them for 5 years and have been biwiring them for about two years now. Switching to biwire configuration made an instantly recognizable change to the sound, larger, in my experience, than changing the interconnects or the type of speaker cables used. To me, the sound really opened up and the bass tune and definition really improved. I have no idea what the technical reasons for this are, but the difference is quite large and apparent to anyone who listens. It may be possible that the improvement i am hearing is actually some kind of "static" and "stochiastic" distortion creating a "false sense of air" but every time I try going back to single wire, even using high quality jumpers, I don't like the sound. If it's distortion, so be it.
sonic_genius
528 posts
 
Bi-wiring is nothing more than a long jumper when you use the same exact cables. I have heard good results using different cables for lows and highs, however.
bigkidz
3,391 posts
 
I was going to purchase the Acoustic Zen Halogram speaker cables and called them. Robert told me that he prefers the single wire with jumpers on his system. That was good enough for me, even though I was bi-wiring with my old cables. I am waiting ont eh new wires now.
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