Biwiring Your Speaks
 

What is the point of Biwiring your speakers? What does it try to accomplish and how do you go about doing it? I've heard it mentioned many times, but I don't think I fully understand the mechanics or concepts behind it. Any insights would be appreciated.

Much like the audible effects of inter-connects and speaker wire, bi-wiring (as opposed bi-amplification) divides the world into believers and non-believers. Rather than try to explain some of the theory, I’ll offer the following from the straightwire FAQ:

<i>Bi-wiring is especially useful when the characteristic impedance varies between the high & low frequency segments of the speaker (i.e. 3 ohm & 8 ohm). It helps reduce the effects of backflow EMF which can smear HF details. If the characteristic impedance is close- the benefits of bi-wiring might not be as clearly audible. It is better in most systems to connect with a single run of a high quality cable than to Bi-wire with two lower quality cables.</i>

Like everything else, equipment, room acoustics, listening preferences, and personal bias play a role as well. Will you hear an audible benefit or even a difference? Only you can make that call.

To bi-wire (or tri-wire) your speakers you must have speakers that support bi-wiring---these will have two separate sets of binding-posts—one each for the low and high frequency crossover inputs. Most of these speakers have a jumper that connects the two sets of binding posts; you first remove this jumper (sometimes just a strip of metal), then run two sets of speaker wire from your amplifier to the terminals on the speaker—one wire set to each pair of binding posts; LF + to LF+; LF- to LF-; HF+ to HF+; HF- to HF-. Some amplifiers have multiple outputs to facilitate bi-wiring; some don’t. If yours doesn’t, the best approach is to terminate the two speaker wires to a single spade lug (or banana) and connect this lug to the amplifier.

Great post audrey :up:

I'd love to see a double-blind audible study on this. Sounds like fake science to me.

man, sometimes i just love this forum. everyone is so quick to judge someone else on how they think "it cant/wont make a difference."

just go and try it! you would be amazed. i use audioquest for my highs (its solid core) and has a very smooth high end, but lacks bass, so i use synergistic research on my lows, which is a much thicker cable, and has better bass delivery, yet suffers on high end. they compliment eachother well. testing cables is one of the biggest things you could do for a good system.

using zipcord or whatever just shows that you have no care for how your systems sounds, you just want a good "value". good speaker cable isnt that expensive either. a great cable is audioquest type4. you can get it bulk for around $2-$3 a foot. it blows away most anything else in the $10/ft range.

just give things a try... it doesnt have to make sense, but if you CANT tell the difference, you dont need it, take it back. any store that values their customers, and their products, will allow for testing and returning of products that done meet their customer's needs.

which leads into my next point... stop shopping at best buy! they carry very very very few quality electronics. shop somewhere else. they treat their customers like crap, and they could care less about most of the producst they sell.

audio is such a glorious thing. and the quest for the perfect gear is an addiction only when you've had a taste of what is out there. i urge you all to go to a high end store one day, and have a salesperson demo YOUR favorite cd (one that you know intimately, and is recorded well). see if you can even tell the difference. sure, they system might be $50K+, but for not a WHOLE lot more than what you paid for yours, you can get much closer to it. sometimes you dont have to spend TOO much more to get a lot more. cables are the PERFECT example of this.

If your amp doesn't have separate outputs for the high and low frequencies, and assuming essentially 0 ohms resistance in the wire connecting the speakers, I don't see a difference in running one set or two sets of wires to the speakers and then splitting them to the high and low drivers at that point, which is essentially what the jumper does.

I have speakers that allow bi-wiring. They have a jumper between the high and low inputs to allow only one wire pair to be used. My receiver has only one output per channel. What's the difference if I remove the jumper and run separate pairs of wires to the speakers if the wires are joined at the amp?

think of a speaker like a motor... its DRAWING power from your amp. this is the reason speakers with lower resistance put more strain on your amp, because its drawing it faster, and more of it.

that "motor" will draw what it needs in a way. using two cables will allow frequencies to separate into the different cables. this will give better separation, and dynamics. its difficult to really understand until you hear it.

So what if you had one pair of wire going half way to the speakers and then split off into two pairs. Would it sound halfway between one wire and two wires?

I'm still hoping to get an answer to the question I posed above.

Anyone?

The answer is closer to no then yes.

The concept is that the bass requires higher current and thus creates EMF that can effect the HF. Like audrey points out it may be more of an issue with poorly designed system impedances.

Look in acoustics there is the science and there is the hobby. The middle is a messy place.

Some highend companies (like Thiel) have started to move away from bi-amp/bi-wire but others still keep it.

To each his own. If you hear a difference then bi-wire. For most it is a way to sell more wire.

So why would a manufacturer build their binding posts this way with the jumpers?

To build on what Bfrank said, if you haven’t tried bi-wiring, why not give it a whirl? Many shops will loan out cables—other than your time, the experiment would cost you nothing. If you have tried it and found no difference---well, lot’s of people are in that camp. Not all antibiotics are equally effective on all people.

It’s worth nothing that in the scheme of things the audible effects of inter-connects, speaker wire, bi-wiring, etc. if evident, are subtle; rarely are any differences immediately and dramatically obvious. In most cases, properly positioning one’s speakers relative to the room boundaries will yield a far greater overall benefit than any of these tweaks. Beyond improving imaging, proper speaker placement can smooth out frequency bumps and dips caused by boundary interactions.

I find movie and musical listening experiences to be radically different. In HT one’s focus is largely on the image; it is simply more difficult to notice subtleties in the audio track—especially since movie soundtracks are compressed and, unless re-mastered for home reproduction, are often overly bright. In contrast, when listening to well recorded music without the diversion of video and its attendant drain on brain processing power, nuances in the sound reproduction become more apparent. I find I am far less critical of sound quality when watching a movie, than when listening to music.

Just to be clear, I have no problem understanding bi-wiring when the wires are connected to different terminals on a receiver that are intended for that purpose.

I just have a hard time understanding how it improves the sound when the bi-wired speaker is untimately connected to only one terminal on the receiver. All frequencies are being sent to both pairs of wires and the speakers essentially get connected at the middle (at the receiver) instead of the jumper on the speaker. There's no active termination at the receiver to "soak up" the effects of one speaker's signal going to the other speaker.

I guess I'll have to try it.

And that's exactly what I love about audio! 75% of the technology seems to be based on our perception of it, and something can either be a waste of time and money or a boon to the hobby, depending on who is listening.
Thanks for the great posts everyone, this is what I was looking for. I didn't realize you had to have seperate sets of binding posts on your speakers for hi/low to do this. It makes more sense to me now.

I tried it on mine, but apparently, I don't have the ears to be able to perceive the difference.

http://www.gotapex.com/images/apex/t...s/mg_rear3.jpg

Cowanrg said "that "motor" will draw what it needs in a way. using two cables will allow frequencies to separate into the different cables. this will give better separation, and dynamics. its difficult to really understand until you hear it."

This is a lot of hoo-hah. I am soooo tired of so-called audio purists and their hyperbole concerning bi-wiring, magic cables, wooden discs, green markers and the like. I have been an audio enthusiast for over twenty years, and I have never seen a hobby with as much "snake oil" as this one.

cowanrg said "I use audioquest for my highs (its solid core) and has a very smooth high end, but lacks bass"

Actually the lack of bass is more likely the result of owning speakers incapable of producing true bass frequencies, and a receiver incapable of delivering enough current if you had speakers that could do so.
I know this is a bit harsh and I am sorry if I offend you. Actually after rereading this I would agree that I'm being unduly sarcastic. The cold reality is that no cable on this earth will make the 4T's two 5.25 inch drivers move enough air to give you true bass. I'd also like to see any paper that would lend evidence to sound frequencies picking and choosing which cable path to take.

James

No need to get excited and at least you see that.

X- the network/driver are connected to the other end of the wire and kind of pulls the power from the amp. If the bass section has a much lower impedance then the HF section it is argued that the wire/network/driver all create an EMF that is slightly different then the signal on the HF which could add audible effects on the HF. I am a total novice at this though I could ask my partner for the science but he is out of town. Maybe next week.

Brian, Its all about marketing. A better question is how could some not if some of the customers think better speakers have this feature.

Thiel's site is interesting on this because they have moved away from it. For us designing its super tough because it is not easy to engineer a good way to do the shorting straps. However, we use bi-wire on our new highend systems and bi-wire at all the shows we go to.

Do you usually assume that when your speakers are bi-wired the wires will be coming from separate amp outputs instead of just separate wires connected to the same output?