Shotgun connection

As I indicated, if the + wires and the - wires are not physically VERY close together (and preferably twisted together, as the OP described for Option 1), inductance will increase considerably. That is the main consideration in choosing between the two choices he described, IMO.

How critical minimizing inductance will be depends in part on the impedance of the speaker at high frequencies. The lower that impedance is the more critical keeping inductance low is likely to be. It also depends on the length of the cable, since if everything else is equal inductance is proportional to length.

And looking at this photo of the OP's specific cable it would appear that twisting + and - closely together, or even keeping them in close proximity, would be essentially impossible under Option 2. Therefore I respectfully disagree with Akg and ZD.

The OP's stated goals of increasing gauge and adding a bit of weight to the sound are likely to be accomplished to the same degree (whatever that degree may be) with either option, as I see it. But depending on the impedance characteristics of the speaker and on the length of the cable, Option 2 could very well end up acting as an unwanted tone control in the upper treble region, attenuating those frequencies at least slightly, and causing transient response to become more sluggish, at least slightly.

Regards,
-- Al

Thanks for all inputs.

My cables are rather short - less than 2 metres long.
Both runs are as close physicaly one to another as possible.
Ocellia speaker cables have only one gauge, so there is no possibility to use different gauges for LF and HF.

I do not have bi-wiring or bi-amping options. Single pair of binding posts at amp and speaker side.
So shotgun connection is only to increase overall gauge.

I am using Ocellia cables for about two years and have tchem connected like in variant 1. But I am considering trying variant 2 just for curious. Cables are rather fragile (I use bare wire no connectors), so I would like to learn theoretical approach first.

Thanks.

Here's another way to look at it:

With Option 1, you are connecting two Ocellia Reference cables in parallel.

With Option 2, in effect you would be connecting two cables that are no longer Ocellia References in parallel, since with the + and - conductors no longer being closely twisted together, you are in effect redesigning the cable. The "redesigned" pair of cables will have much higher inductance than in Option 1, and I suspect it would also have significantly higher inductance than if you were running just one cable per channel rather than two.

At a 2 meter length it might not make much difference either way, but why "redesign" an excellent cable, with unpredictable results?

Regards,
-- Al

Good point.

I will try to audition both options and will report the results.

In my experience I found that shotgun cables offer only very mild difference if any to the non shotgun.