Wiring two post speakers with biwire cable


I have speakers with one pair of binding posts each. My amp has four binding posts for each channel (biwiring capable).

I have a set of biwire cables (one end has two terminations, + and -, the other end has four, two + and two -).

Is is safe to connect all four terminations at the end of this cable to the two posts on each speaker, or should I leave one set of + and - unconnected? What if I connected the four termination end to the amp and the two termination end to the speaker?

I don't want to run into any problems with running cables in parallel, messing with impedance, etc. Thanks.
turnaround
If your speaker cables are the same as the non-biwire versions you will not be shotgunning. Many brand of speaker wires are bi-wire capable. There are mulitple conductors (separate wires) per channel. All they do is segregate the separate conductors into 4 on the speaker end instead of 2. These type of cables will therefore be no different than the non biwire cables if used on your speakers.

1)Turnaround has a pair of biwire speaker cables, consisting of 2 sets of single wire cable in a common jacket
2) he intends to use half of the bi wire set to make a single run, either with an open ended ,unconnected pair on one set of speaker terminals or tying the separate pairs of runs together to form a single but doubled parallel pair
3)shotgunning simply involves runing 2 parallel identical runs to the speaker terminals
If he is using just a single pair run from this setup, he is using one half the number of strands, one half the amount of cable and in a configuration and topography with different load qualities including the added capacitance of the unused second run.
If he ties them all together at the speaker end ,he is effectively doubling the run in parallel.
Semantics aside, the results will still be a shotgun configuration if he ties both runs together.
Sugarbrie,
It wasn't until after my last posting that I finally understood the full implications of your statement.It never occured to me that a company would stoop to such a cynical marketing ploy as the halved "biwire" scheme that you were referring to.I sincerely hope that the cable products that you address are sold for the same cost as the single run cables from which they would have been derived.Care to name names?
Caterham: A lot of cables are sold this way. Most of the Straightwire, Audioquest, Kimber, Wireworld, etc; you get the same cable whether single or bi-wire. The cost is usually only +/-$30 for the extra labor to terminate in a bi-wire configuration. If you go the their websites you will read that the cables are "Bi-wire capable".

This does seem that strange to me. If the speakers are not biwire, the signal is split to the low/high inside the speakers. Bi-Wire is moving it back to the amp (moves the crossover back). Many brands do not make a shot-gun cable, you have to terminate double runs.

I realized later what you were saying also. There are many bi-wire cables on the market and they do cost a lot more than the single cable because they are double inside (MIT, Nordost, Analysis Plus).


So Turnaround; what kind of cables do you have?????

The speaker cables are 8' harmonic tech pro 9+, which have four terminations on the speaker end. My speakers are Thiels, which have a 4 ohm impedence rating.

I am wondering if it's okay to go with what I have, or if (for safety or sound reasons) I should consider cables with just two terminations on the speaker end.

Can you explain more about this idea of the shotgun configuration -- how/why does that work, and on what systems what would it be good or bad?