What are the advantages to bi wiring?
Pasote
Posts: 22
I have researched and I have found the pros and cons to bi wiring but really what I am looking for is feedback from actual individuals who like either or and why. Is it worth it to purchase an amp in order to bi wire my speakers? If I bi wire the fronts should I do this to the surrounds and center as well? As you see... I am a Polkie!
Post edited by Pasote on
Comments
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Advantage #2 ...
You get to spend twice as much on wire.
You don't need an additional amp to bi-wire. An additional amp would be used for bi-amping. -
I told you I was a Polkie! So I don't need another amp. Then how do I go about bi wiring? Do I run two sets of speaker wires from my receiver? If so do I run them both from the same output?
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Yes & Yes ...
But MAKE SURE you remove the jumpers between the upper and lower speaker terminals first ...
This should be spelled out in the manual for whatever speakers you have and if you don't have a manual, you can find them here.
http://www.polkaudio.com/home/library/manuals.php -
Thanks!
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Ok... I've read through the manual and it does state, "Bi-wiring provides small but noticeable improvement to the overall transparency of the speaker."
This "small but noticeable improvent" they talk about. Is it worth it? I understand each has their own tastes and I am sure in the end I will have to try it but I want to have realistic expectations. Especially after I run out and buy more speaker cable and banana plugs. -
Opinions vary all over the lot with bi-wiring ... If you ask ten people about bi-wiring your likely to get 15 different answers. The bottom line is if you are interested then try it. You could even try bi-wiring one of your front speakers temporarily and see if that makes any difference.
I can't say I am a fan of it, but then that shouldn't preclude you from trying it.
What receiver / Pre-amp & amp are you running and to what speakers & with what speaker wire ?
As a follow up to your original question, I wouldn't bother trying to bi-wire the surrounds and I wouldn't bother with the center UNLESS you've tried the mains and they sound better. -
I am running a Kenwood VR 4900 as my receiver that runs 130 watts per channel. I recently acquired some Polk RT 800is that I will be picking up this week sometime. For the meantime I have some Thiels that are mainly for stereo and not so much for HT. My speaker wire is Monster Cable XP 14 gauge and I have the Monster Cable banana plugs on both ends.
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There are undoubtedly better cables than Monster XP's but here again you'll need to experiment.
For those things that one has control over I view bi-wiring as one of the last tweaks to bother with i.e. behind at least all of the following not necessarily in this order ...
Quality of the playback device
Quality of the preamp & amp / receiver
Power of the amp / receiver
Quality of the interconnects
Quality of the speaker wires.
The 4900 appears to have about 130 wpc at 6 ohms but more like 100 wpc at 8 which is what most Polk speakers are.
The 800's appear take up to 250 wpc ... so although bi-wiring might provide what the Polk manual suggests, it would appear that there are other areas that would be better to attack first.
Frankly however, I wouldn't do anything until the speakers arrive and you get them hooked up and positioned poperly along with the center and surrounds and a good sub. THEN you can tweak if you find it either necessary or desireable. -
Thanks for all the advice!
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Pasote, opinions on this matter can vary widely, but the right to express an opinion doesn't include a right to be taken seriously. There's no technical basis for any unique advantage to be present in bi-wiring. The two wires are equivalent in resistance to one wire three gauge numbers lower(e.g. two 16ga bi-wires equal a single 13ga wire). The two wires would carry the same full range of frequencies out of the amp until frequency division takes place in the speaker crossover, just as it does with a single wire. Due to the added complication and expense of using two wires, it makes sense to simply use one wire of adequate gauge.
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I have found that upgrading the jumpers results in better sound than bi-wiring. I also agree that using a larger gauge wire will yield the same or better results than bi-wiring.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
I have seen many posts that state that people have upgraded the jumpers.What is done?
Remove the exsisting jumpers and replace with what.
Sounds to be an inexpensive tweak that I'd like to try.
I tested biwiring my CS400i which may sound a little more clear or it could be me wishing thinking it sounded better I don't know.
Always gotta be tweakin something:DMains:RT800i
Center:CS400i
Sides:fx/300i
Rears:RT35i
Subwoofer:SVS 20-39 pci
Receiver: Denon 3802
DVD: Denon 3800
HDTV:Hitachi 57swx20b
Remote:MX-500 -
I recommend doing what I did, bi-wire just one speaker, then listen to them, then find someone else to listen, but don't tell them that you messed with the wiring, and see if they notice any differences from the left and right sides.*
Regards,
PolkThug
*It did make a difference in my particular setup.** So, I am now running two sets of 16 gauge wire. However, if you have thick wires to start out with, you probably won't notice a difference.
**to my fiance's ears. -
Hi,I dont want to bi wire my RTI10s but should I upgrade (if possible) the jumpers on these or just leave them alone?
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Luke, try replacing the jumpers on one of your speakers with some extra speaker wire, and see if it sounds better than the other speaker.
Regards,
PolkThug -
My 2 cents is try it! I have been playing with the bi wire & single wire w/better jumpers for a while.ve used Monster Z1 single with Z1 jumpers & it sounded great. Im currently using Monster Z2 bi wires on my front 3 mains & Z1 single on the rears. If you do use single wire use a good jumper. My rear speaker jumpers are replaced w/Z1. Im a fan of specialty cables, I feel there is alot of R & D that go into a better cables. I have even tried home made speaker cable that a freind made that sounded great, it was made of six 10 guage fine strand wires brades together, 3 for + & 3 for -. My friends reason for the cablesounding so good is it had the mass. His theory is if your not using specialty cable & are using regular cable go for the mass. he likes using multipul cables braded. It all comes down to what you like & what you hear.
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I like biamping, or maybe...I just like amps. Either way, it sounds better to me.
I havnt tried bi-wiring or care to. To expensive, for the same price of connectors, wires, blah blah, i could just buy another amp.- Not Tom ::::::: Any system can play Diana Krall. Only the best can play Limp Bizkit.
