Bi-wiring Polk Lsi9s

Norm Apter

I am very aware of the extensive arguments between those who feel that bi-wiring makes a difference and those who insist its snake oil.

But I want to be more specific. I want to ask in particular owners/users of Polk Lsi9s who have at least tried it (rather than dismiss it out of hand) to share their experiences, whether positive or no difference (just trying to get a concensus here). My very simple music-listening system:

Yamaha RX-797 2.1 A/V Receiver
Marantz CD-5001 CD player
Polk Audio Lsi9s (one pair)

If anyone has had any positive experience, I'd be interested to know how you did it. My receiver not H-T receiver, it only has binding posts for two pair of speakers. If I were to bi-wire, should I have the two sets of speaker cables all going to A. That is two sets in each binding post or should I use both A & B.

Gaara

I tried it and didn't notice a difference with my 9s. At the time I was using a Pioneer Elite DV-47ai dvd player, B&K Ref 50 Pre, and Parasound Halo A23 amp. The speaker wire was Canare Starquad, I tried using it regularly and then bi-wired with no perceivable difference.

maximillian

What gauge speaker wire are you using? How long is it? If anything, if it's a long distance (over 10 ft) then I would imagine bi-wiring would help simply because there is less loss in the speaker cable.

treitz3

Just thinking out loud here........though I have had little [if any] to no improvement to bi-wiring, in this case wouldn't he get a better sound just because he is utilizing the entire amp instead of half of it? So if this is the case, it wouldn't be the bi-wire that would offer the improvement....it would be the utilization of both amp sections, no?

My apologies to the OP, I haven't tried to bi-wire the 9's myself.

mightymouse

You can try to bi-amp, that may improve the sound.

treitz3

Bi-amping will definitely improve the sound without a doubt.

zingo

It very well may because you would be biamping, not biwiring, thus more power. I have always biamped my speakers when I've had the chance and always liked it.

treitz3

The reason I question myself is that I recall having one or two amps that when you used speaker(s) A and B the sound actually got worse when I "bi-wired". It's been too long to recall what amps I was using at the time unfortunately and I'm sure it has a lot to do with how the amps were engineered.

It might just depend on the amp. IIRCC I tried the same thing on my old man's amp [Onkyo] and had positive results. This was 20 years ago and my memory ain't what it used to be.

zingo

Last time I did it with a 90's Denon receiver, it improved the sound, but I can see what you're saying treitz, some receivers may not like that combo.

G-2

Our 9's are not bi-wired (single on amp end, 2 split into 4 on the speaker end) nor have we ever tried it because the majority of that speaker run is in the attic (our 9's are in the back, FX's on the side) we have our 15's, which are upfront bi-wired and there is a significant difference in the sound, of course that's using the Rotel-RB1090 (700wpc @ 4ohms) for the 15's and only the 15's, the earthquake has more than enough power (600 wpc @ 4ohms) to bi-wire the Center, the FX's and 9's, we just don't have the wiring for it and as they are (single wired using the jumpers) the entire system simply sounds outstanding!

Norm Apter

Thanks for the responses so far. By the way, one person asked what gauge wire I'm using and the distance of the run. My speaker wire is 14-gauge and yes, the run is longer than 10 feet (about 18 feet due to the awkward shape of my bedroom, where my system is place).

I see that a few people have mentioned bi-amping. Right now, I only have one amp 9receiver). Actually, I'm going to start a separate thread seeking advice on either bi-amping or adding a subwoofer. Please stay tuned! And thanks to all of those who have contributed thus far.

G-2

Might also want to ask folks thoughts on adding an amp to those 9's

john22614

I bi-wired my nines using 14 gauge blue jeans cable and honestly didn't notice any improvement over some older 12 gauge monster cable. But, I left it bi-wired because the cable was new and certainly didn't degrade the sound.