Impedance of biwire-able speakers


Just a simple question (I think) - is a 4 ohm, bi-wireable speaker still considered a 4 ohm load if it is truly bi-amped? In other words, if I take out the jumpers and get a second amp, is the load for each amp still 4 ohms? Or is it now 8 ohms... or 2 ohms... or does it depend on the crossover/speaker design? Thanks.
duece1
Allow me to get touchy feely. To be an audiophile all you need is a desire to get the most out of recorded music. I started out with a table radio listening to FM. As I write this I am at my home office desk listening to my mini system(purchased from Best Buy under $1k).
Secondly, you are not talking about bi amping. If you are running two pairs of speakers off one set of speaker connections, you either run them in parrallel or in series. Parrallel means you connect both set of speaker wires at the same reciever speaker taps. Series means you connect one speaker to your receiver then connect the other to the first speaker. If the resulting load is to low you can cause your amp to oscillate and even blow. If the resutlant impedance is to high, you frequency reponse curve will look like a roller coaster(Raul, thus is true with tube and ss)Courtesy of another Audiogoner, here is how you calculate it:12-01-04: Elgordo
For speakers in parrallel it's R1 X R2 divided by R1 + R2, where R is the speaker impedence. So two 8 ohm speakers would be 8X8=64 divided by 8+8=16 for an answer of 4 ohms. In series it's additive so two 8 ohm speakers would be 16 ohms.
Elgordo
From your description you speakers were hooked up in paralell. Doing the math in my head that yeilds 2.4 ohms. This could indeed cause some amps to oscillate. In sereies the answer would be 10 ohms. Too high, but probably will not damage your amp. Onkyo made some of the best receivers and maybe able to handle a low load. Check your manual.

I violated a rule: The right answer is usually the simplest one.
Sorry for the poor explanation. Yes, I'm talking about using 4 channels of amplification just as Sean described, from one receiver. Each speaker post would be hooked up to a seperate output post on the receiver. Thanks again.
Bi amping means TWO AMPLIFIERS. If you have a reciever with multi channel or multi zone you probably will not have a problem.
Don't worry. As you can see, I enjoy giving those explanations.
greg
Duece1: What model receiver are you using? Is it a stereo receiver with multiple speaker jacks or is it a multi-channel surround sound receiver? Sean
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Thanks guys. I am using an Onkyo TX-8511 stereo receiver (no A/V or surround- it has two sets of speaker jacks (A & B) and switches to play one pair (A), the other pair (B), or both pairs of speakers (A and B). There is also a switch on the back for me to select speaker impedance - one position is for when I have 8 ohm speakers hooked up to A OR B; and the other position is for when I either have 4 ohm speakers hooked up to A OR B, or when I have 8 ohm min speakers hooked up to A AND B. This is how I got to my original question - are my new 8 ohm bi-wire speakers still acting like 8 ohm speakers when I wire the tweeters to A and the woofers to B? (When I had two pairs of speakers (1 pair 4 ohm, 1 pair 6 ohm) I never played A AND B together.)
Dave