Bi-Wire to Straight Wire ???

hglass

My speakers are bi-wired. If I choose to bye pass the bi-wire and use straight wire, will I hear a difference in the speakers? Better, Worse??

Also I believe to bye pass the bi-wire setup on the speakers I have to connect the postive with the postive and the neg. with the neg. Than just connect the straight wire to the postive and neg.

ben62670

One set of better wire is better than a pair of cheaper wire.
Ben

sTiLlLeArNiNg

Why not use both and call it an orgy?

hglass

come on guys please answer my question. If there is no benefit what is the purpose of bi-wire?

ben62670

hglass wrote: »

come on guys please answer my question. If there is no benefit what is the purpose of bi-wire?

I did.
Thanks
Ben

sTiLlLeArNiNg

I personally think that bi-wiring aid's in separation however some disagree, IIRC you have a pretty good setup (classe/B&W) so you would probably notice a difference.

But as ben previously stated "One set of better wire is better than a pair of cheaper wire." i would have to agree

You could always use a single lead to the speaker's and replace the factory included jumper's on the speaker mounting plate with some wire jumper's, i feel this also give's an improvement. IIRC Manufacturer's like anticable and cardas manufacture them if you don't feel like making your own....

ben62670

I run my own silvers on the highs, and AQ CV4's on the lows, but dollar for dollar you have a hard time beating a single set of good cables.
Ben

vc69

I don't know that this will be of help to you, but here goes.
I have done the single wire/jumper thing for a long time. I use good, jacketed pro grade (as in P.A) 12ga. wire. It's the same wire I have used to wire a ton of amp racks in my days as a live sound engineer. (For the long runs, we used something different. That wire is the size of a garden hose, is 4 conductor and rather unsightly for home applications, though I would like to try it sometime.)
It has always sounded good to me. Very good.

Recently I got the chance to try out some Transparent MusicWave biwire cables. I thought that at least they would allow me get rid of those damn jumpers which I hate and besides, they look cool.

To my ears, there was a difference in the cables. I'm not sure I would spend what these puppies cost for the difference I heard though.

My instinct tells me that doing away with the jumper and using a single wire/quality jumper wire would be just as effective, but I have yet to try that. I have the Transparents, so I'm using them.

In the end, these are things you just have to try for yourself and listen to the results. Then you know what works best for you. I have some more listening to do on this one to make a solid call for myself.

Hope that helps in some small way.

/.02

dvran

I asked the same question and no, there is no advantage to bi-wiring.

Face

Just use a pair of high quality jumpers and call it a day.

vc69

Btw... welcome to CP!

jimmydep

I too have found very little benefit to bi-wiring or even bi-amping.

anhchungdoan

hglass wrote: »

come on guys please answer my question. If there is no benefit what is the purpose of bi-wire?

I am afraid to say that there is "virtually" no difference in SQ. You need to try it yourself and hear it yourself.

Funny thing is a few posters wanted to know if there is any benefit to bi-amp their AVRs. Frankly, it's a waste of time and energy. These passive bi-amp litteratures from these AVRs are just "HYPE" of selling point.

olilugo

I will be on the side of I notice a difference by having my fronts and center speakers in bi-wire mode instead of strait. It was a small change but a change for the better none the less, to the point I fell no need to do any more tweaking with my system.

F1nut

What speakers? What cables? What power? 2 channel or HT?

One either uses bi-wires or single run speaker cables. There is no bypassing involved.

hglass

I have B&W speakers left/center/right. I have a Classe amp Model CAV 180x5. I also have a Meridian 861 A/V processor.

olilugo

hglass wrote: »

I have B&W speakers left/center/right. I have a Classe amp Model CAV 180x5. I also have a Meridian 861 A/V processor.

I read the user guide for the b&W 804's and they specifically say to bi-wire.

BTW nice gear.

dorokusai

I've never found a benefit to bi-wiring but I do use bi-wire cables.

anhchungdoan

dorokusai wrote: »

I've never found a benefit to bi-wiring but I do use bi-wire cables.

Yeah, bi-wire, passive bi-amp...was a big hype of the old school of thought in the 80s.

Active bi-amp ,yes but passive bi-amp and bi-wiring are "virtually" no benefit to the end-users but the cable company and speaker manufatures.

Only a hand full co such as B &W will recommend passive bi-amp due to their internal X-over design (?)

hglass

Thanks

CoolJazz

Whether bi-wiring makes a difference in your individual case depends on the amps output source impedance, the resistance of the speaker wire and it's contacts and then very importantly, the impedance and phase angles demanded by the drivers and their filters (the crossover). Each and every case and results may differ, depending on these issues.

For somebody to say "Bi-wiring is stupid, doesn't work and you're dumb to try it" is rather closed minded...unless your aware of and informed on all the above issues in the individual situation. Power drop and the laws of electrical current flow are still the same today as it was in the 80's...until Roger Russell says otherwise.

A better answer to this seemingly weekly question is more along the lines of "It depends on the equipment you use but for me....".

Just sayin' it could be bad advice your passin' out if you rule it out offhand.

CoolJazz

anhchungdoan

CoolJazz wrote: »

Whether bi-wiring makes a difference in your individual case depends on the amps output source impedance, the resistance of the speaker wire and it's contacts and then very importantly, the impedance and phase angles demanded by the drivers and their filters (the crossover). Each and every case and results may differ, depending on these issues.

For somebody to say "Bi-wiring is stupid, doesn't work and you're dumb to try it" is rather closed minded...unless your aware of and informed on all the above issues in the individual situation. Power drop and the laws of electrical current flow are still the same today as it was in the 80's...until Roger Russell says otherwise.

A better answer to this seemingly weekly question is more along the lines of "It depends on the equipment you use but for me....".

Just sayin' it could be bad advice your passin' out if you rule it out offhand.

CoolJazz

To say" Bi-wiring is stupid...you're dumb to try...is rather closed minded..

These are pretty not only strong but rude and uncivilized way to make a statement. I agree with you.

The same can be applied with " This xyz is the best cables" statement. This is not only shallow but ignorant statement that comes from a person who needs self validation. Since there is NO best cables, NO best amplifier...I 'd rather see a notion of IMHO or IMS.

I "virtually" see no difference in bi-wiring but there is other poster who sees the benefit.

Regarding about passive bi-amp from an AVR, I have to say it is simply not working but B & W will not recommend active bi-amp their speakers at the same token, they did not address that pasive bi-amp from a multi-chanel AVR will work either.:) Peace, brother.

bigaudiofanatic

ben62670 wrote: »

One set of better wire is better than a pair of cheaper wire.
Ben

Ya right wire is wire. Anyway it depends on the unit. The LSI 25's with by amp you can not use the sub input because all the bi amp is doing is grabbing the sub signal from the speaker wires. I would say no you probably will not hear a difference. You could just twist both wires together and have a double pair. Just my .02

Face

You really don't have a clue do you?

MLZ

I bi-wired because I bought some Canare StarQuad and could and read at http://www.polkaudio.com/education/showanswer.php?question_num=53 Polk says "The midrange "opened up," becoming clearer and more detailed with improved three-dimensional imaging. Voices and other midrange sounds were more "out-of-the-box" than with the single wire hookup. " etc. but I heard no difference. So I looked at the wiring diagram (I took a couple of Electrical Engineering courses before moving on to Business) and saw all I did was move the jumper from the speaker terminals back to the amplifier terminals.

"186000 Miles Per Second. It's not just a good idea - IT'S THE LAW."

vc69

bigaudiofanatic wrote: »

Ya right wire is wire. Anyway it depends on the unit. The LSI 25's with by amp you can not use the sub input because all the bi amp is doing is grabbing the sub signal from the speaker wires. I would say no you probably will not hear a difference. You could just twist both wires together and have a double pair. Just my .02

Wow.

Face wrote: »

You really don't have a clue do you?

I think not.

tugzy

bigaudiofanatic wrote: »

Ya right wire is wire. Anyway it depends on the unit. The LSI 25's with by amp you can not use the sub input because all the bi amp is doing is grabbing the sub signal from the speaker wires. I would say no you probably will not hear a difference. You could just twist both wires together and have a double pair. Just my .02

what? LoL....

Murray1

If you choose to bi wire, I bought canare from blue jeans that worked great.