How to connect bi-wire speakers

Briefly, binding posts are one of the worst offenders in terms of audio degradation (thick metal and its affect on the electromagnetic wave as a waveguide). When connecting a bi-wireable speaker with single wire cables, signal must pass through two sets of binding posts and, typically, an equally poor jumper, before it reaches the drivers. If the single cable is connected to the bass posts, one can expect diminished focus, soundstage, and a glare in the treble region with poor high freq extension. On the positive side, the bass will be tighter (less boom) with better perceived bass extension (deeper bass). If the single cable is connected to the tweeter/mid posts, one can expect a more natural top end, better imaging and soundstage, but more boomy (out of control) bass. Many actually enjoy the bass boom and prefer this configuration. The magnitude of these differences will depend on the crossover point and the quality of the cables. This is an easy experiment for anyone to do in their own system to hear the effect for themselves.
Again, feel free to call for a more detailed explanation.

Best Regards,

Jeffrey Smith
Silversmith Audio

Hi Jeff

Thanks for your description, it will clear and benefit for many people, but how can we get the most good sounding without losing the deep bass, sound stage and focus? should I get other pair of speaker cables for bi-wiring?(but it will cost so much), or use Silversmith jumper would help? please comment.

Best Regards

Edmond

Hi Edmond,
They only way to avoid passing the signal through two sets of binding posts is obviously to use a second set of high quality cables to bi-wire. In the case of Silversmith Audio cables, there is nothing wrong with using Silver cables for the bass and Palladium cables for the mid/tweeter. The best sound of course will be achieved by truly bi-wiring with Palladium.
Upgrading your jumper to Palladium will also improve your sound quality, though not to the level of bi-wiring.
Lastly, consider upgrading your binding posts, if possible. Low mass binding posts are finally hitting the market and I recommend the Eichmann product. This can be a substantial sonic improvement to both the single and bi-wire configurations.

Best Regards,

Jeffrey Smith
Silversmith Audio

Briefly, binding posts are one of the worst offenders in terms of audio degradation (thick metal and its affect on the electromagnetic wave as a waveguide).

Having studied power transmission lines, EM radiation, waveguides and electronics, I would simply like to point out that most electrical engineers (that I know of) would disagree with the above statement (when dealing with signals at audio frequencies).

I am not disputing the fact that many people are convinced that they hear something different...I just beg to differ on the scientific explanation.

As far as science is concerned (to my best knowledge), one should not expect an audible difference from any of the commonly used binding posts (provided a suitable connection is made).

Describing a binding post as "one of the worst offenders in terms of audio degradation" is a patently false statement (IMHO).

As an engineer, I will simply state that the concepts and equations behind my statements can be found in any text on electromagnetic theory, and, surprisingly, are pretty simple.
The Director for the Center for Audio Research and Engineering, and Director for Postgraduate Studies within the Department of Electronic Systems Engineering at Essex University in the UK, has written articles which very neatly explain how a binding post can dramatically affect sound quality. While these papers are more specifically about cables, the same concepts apply to the binding posts as they are just a continuation of the conductor chain. Many of his papers can be found here:
http://www.essex.ac.uk/ese/research/audio_lab/malcolms_publications.html#PhD%20Thesis

Hopefully some of those articles can answer your questions. Happy Reading!

Jeffrey Smith
Silversmith Audio