polk rt2000i biwiring/using biwire speaker cable

Systems

I've asked the question about biwiring my speakers. The answer was that I couldn't. The folks at Polk agreed with this response when I asked about it. However, today, they made a 180 degree turn and replied that it was fine to use a biwire cable. The only thing I had to do was to remove the metal strip between the posts. This might not be biwiring but more like using the line level woofer inputs using the speaker-line inputs. Thinking about it, this should work too and would not introduce any noice into the electronics plus will help the hi/mids carry less load and perform better. I have a feeling-just this-that having a good biwire cable, the system will perform better than using a line-leve input. Correct me on this. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

pdebaum

This is indeed not "real" bi-wiring. In this case with speaker-level inputs, using a bi-wire or leaving the metal strips should not make any sensible difference (assuming the theory of bi-wiring with possible feedback or noise from the mid driver). Woofers in this speaker are powered by an integrated amp, whether you use speaker-level inputs or line-level inputs, so loading should not be a problem. But it never hurts to experiment, eh ? Actually I tried, since I was curious just as you, and found no difference at all between bi-wire or metal strips. The binding posts separation most likely exists for speaker-level/line-level selection only, rather than encouraging attempts for bi-wiring. If that's what I suspect, I wonder why Polk just didn't provide a manual switch instead of confusing customers.

Now choosing for the woofers between line-level or speaker-level is a more solid subject. Just remember the sub in the RT2000i was designed with integration in mind, from the speaker-level crossover. The line-level is here mainly for those that want to experiment; it will not be the best solution most of the times, especially with the auto on/off sensitivity issue. It could take a lot of tweaking on the receiver/amp and sub volume to get similar or better bass from a straight speaker-level connection. But again, experimentation is the key