speaker connection: banana vs spade

Mystery

I believe you guys but when the manufacturer of the speakers that I have claim bi-wire is better, it's confusing...

BlueFox

The benefit of these forums is they are an additional source of information. Of course, some of the info is great, and some is BS, and it is your job to figure out who gives good info, and who gives out BS.

Anyway, I read the Vandersteen Q&A link, and one thing they said is that bi-wiring can give an improvement close to bi-amping, and that it is obviously audible. Okay. That is easy to verify, especially if you have their speakers with the cross-overs enhanced for bi-wiring. Run two pair of wire to each speaker, and find out if it now sounds better. That is about the easiest least expensive test you can do. If it doesn't work then return the extra cables.

Of course, speaker manufactures are run by individuals with their own preferences. While some might believe in providing two inputs for bi-amping/wiring, others only provide a single set of inputs. For example, Magico does not support bi-wiring, and you won't find many people arguing Magico is inferior to Vandersteen.

tonyb

Sorting out the bull in opinions here and manufacturers websites runs hand in hand. You have to understand the principles of how stuff works to be able to tell whats useful info or marketing bull. Sometimes it's not bull either, just misleading.

For example, manufacturers state "recommended wattage usage" for their speakers with a low number and a high number. Like 50-300 watts. You wouldn't want to power A9's with a 50 watt receiver, and you can certainly throw an amp at them rated at more than 300 watts. Kinda misleading isn't it ? Or how about bi-amping functions with receivers.....but the "manufacturer said.... ", right ? Or another yet is "discrete power supplies " in receivers. If that was the case, you'd have 5 power cords for a 5 channel receiver.

I would encourage you to get your read on about how stuff works. Once you get a good grasp on it, sorting the bull is fairly easy then. F1NUT hit it in his post so I won't recap.