What is "biwiring"?


HI. Quick question-what is biwiring for speakers with 2 sets of terminals? I see that some cable companies are using a single strand of wire, terminated twice on the speaker end. Others have 2 sets of wire run together, 1 set each has connectors on the speaker end, but only 1 set total of connectors on the amp end. Another method is using 2 sets of cables-one set having spades on the amp end, one set bananas on the amp, so that both can be connected simultaneously to the same terminal.

Which is considered "biwiring"? Which sounds best?
chiho
I don't claim to be any particular expert, but I think biwiring means one connection at the amp end (if the speaker cable is split, you just fasten both together) going to two connections (one high & one low) at the speaker end.

With speakers designed for this, it allows for less impedance mismatching (I think).

It can make a pretty big difference (YMMV) depending on amp & speakers.

happy listening,
Audioqest calls it single or double biwiring when using a single or a double cable. Most of AQ's speaker cables use multiple conductors of different gage, which make it fairly easy to single-biwire. Their most-common conductor sizes are 16-, 18-, 19-, and 21AWG.

However, many (including AQ) believe one is better off separating the different magnetic fields created by the low-pass and high-pass sections of the crossover by using physically different cables. IOW, they believe you're better off using 2 separate medium-price cables rather than one very expensive single cable no matter how many pairs of conductors it has.

I double biwire my 2- and 3-way speakers. (Virtually all 2-way speaker systems use a high crossover point; most 3-ways use a low crossover point.) The former combine bass and midrange in one section and hence benefit from the 'quality' and 'quantity' parts of the cable, while the tweeter-only section of a 2-way benefits from the very-highest-quality conductors while not needing much material for the low-current treble. Three-ways run bass on the bottom and combine midrange and treble on the top. The bass requires good (but not great) conductor quality but a lot of it. The MR/treble benefits from the very-highest-quality conductors but doesn't need quite the high-current capacity that the bass does.

On my 2-ways, I use AQ's KE-6, a 4-pairs-of-silver, DBS cable, on the bass/MR and KE-4, a 2-pairs-of-silver, DBS cable, on the treble. On my 3-way center, an Aerial CC3B, I use inexpensive Type 6 with 3 pairs on LGC copper on the bass, and KE-6 on the MR/treble.

All 3 of these front-channel speakers have never sounded better.
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In my world, using two separate cables for biwiring is better. I tried the single cable/double pair speaker termination approach. It was clearly not as good as utilizing two pair of cables.

Doesn't matter, spades or bananas. If there's four leads you can double up either one on a termination. With Bananas, you may need a couple plugs like Audioquest's double banana plug, to accomodate all four leads. Then, run one Audioquest double banana into the other.

Budget may decide which way you have to go, though.

If you have the cash, do the job right and run two separate cables, i.e. one for low freq. and one for mid/high.

And, while you're at it, buy another two channel amp, to feed these new wires! ha Now it's getting expensive. But WELL worth it! To achieve truly great results, biwire AND biamp each of your main speakers! I found that the combination of biwiring and biamping Maggie 1.6qr's makes them another creature altogether!

I'm currently using Harmonic Technology cables, and find them to be quite open and detailed, far more so than the Audioquest dbs cables.

Put a serious percentage of your speaker cable dollars to work on the mains. You can always upgrade your sub, satellite cables later.
OK, another question:
Biamping - do the 2 amps must have the same power rating?
For example, I have a NAD T753 receiver (6x70W) and an old NAD (2x25W) - does it make sense to biamp?
Thanks!