Bi-wiring: gimmick or good?

[andynz]

I'm making progress...

I'm starting to put my new equipment together. I now have some Mission 780SE bookshelf speakers and a Rotel RA-935BX integrated amp.

The person I bought the speakers off had them set up bi-wired and didn't supply the bridging pieces to run in normal set up.

Is it better to set up the speakers in a bi-wired configuration or just save the $$$ on cables and go regular and purchase some new bridging connectors?

I looked at bi-amping but the nominal impedance of the speakers is only 6 ohms, and the manual for the amp recommends a minimum of 8 ohms.

[donnelltech]

No need to buy new bridge pieces. Just use short pieces of speaker wire to connect the two sets of binding posts. In my experience, biwiring has never yielded any benefit.

[circuit bored records]

Biwiring: gimmick. Biamping: good.

[allenh]

Biwiring: gimmick. Biamping: good.

 

That’s my opinion and experience but cast around the internet and you won't get a definitive answer on this.

 

From an engineering perspective it's theoretically a very minor improvement but my own feeling is it's just a way of selling more expensive cable, of course like all things in hifi you will get those who will swear blind it's the best thing since the emperors new birthday suit.

[kannibal]

That’s my opinion and experience but cast around the internet and you won't get a definitive answer on this.

From an engineering perspective it's theoretically a very minor improvement but my own feeling is it's just a way of selling more expensive cable, of course like all things in hifi you will get those who will swear blind it's the best thing since the emperors new birthday suit.

Think about the signal path. What do you think the jumpers on a four post speaker are doing? There could be a discussion on the quality of the jumpers compared to high end speaker wire, blah, blah, blah, but it's the same wire path.

Sorry didn't necessarily mean to reply to you, per se. Just wanted to keep the discussion going.

[Tardcore]

skip bi-wiring.  I would just take two small pieces of cable (ideally identical to your main speaker cables) and attach a banana plug on one end and a spade on the other.

[circuit bored records]

From an engineering perspective it's theoretically a very minor improvement

You're referring to biamping, correct? If so, I agree. My opinion is that biwiring does nothing, a la kannibal's argument.

[kannibal]

skip bi-wiring. I would just take two small pieces of cable (ideally identical to your main speaker cables) and attach a banana plug on one end and a spade on the other.

To reiterate my point. With four post speakers, the only way to "skip bi-wiring", is to bi-amp. The jumpers are creating the same signal path as running two seperate speaker wire pairs from the same posts on your amp.

[Tardcore]

To reiterate my point. With four post speakers, the only way to "skip bi-wiring", is to bi-amp. The jumpers are creating the same signal path as running two seperate speaker wire pairs from the same posts on your amp.

 

ok, I amend my statement to "skip running a full length cable from both sets of speaker binding posts to your receiver/amp/integrated amplifer."

[allenh]

Think about the signal path. What do you think the jumpers on a four post speaker are doing? There could be a discussion on the quality of the jumpers compared to high end speaker wire, blah, blah, blah, but it's the same wire path.

Sorry didn't necessarily mean to reply to you, per se. Just wanted to keep the discussion going.

 

You're referring to biamping, correct? If so, I agree. My opinion is that biwiring does nothing, a la kannibal's argument.

 

Bi or tri Amping is the only way to do it properly and better still going active with an electronic crossover before the power amplifiers in my opinion

 

My point about there being a theoretical minor improvement is with bi wiring.

 

I've had this discussion a few times and some take the view that having two equal lengths of cable running in parallel actually lowers the resistance of the load but it's so minimal it's really not worth worrying about and the volt drop over the whole length is far more apparent. especially in a high current solid state output amplifier and low sensitivity speakers.

 

Also here is one school of thought that says running different cable types for bass and treble in a bi wire system has a greater effect and this I can see but it's going to be a limiting factor in one or the other allowing the less limited driver to stand out and therefore be preferable to that particular listener rather than an actual quantifiable improvement.

 

People do have discussions about the jumpers and you can buy very expensive hand made yadda yadda yadda (bored, going to sleep and no I don't want to buy your shiny £500 a set jumpers) ones

 

My own considered opinion on all of those standpoints are that they are utter bollocks, it's basically snake oil for people who've fallen for the sales patter and bought more cable than they actually need but if you're convinced all that cable was a good buy then good luck with that.

 

The other thing to consider is that if your system is that sensitive that bi wiring makes a really noticeable difference I suspect it's so fussy that it actually only sounds good 2 days a year and with 3 or 4 different records total.

[allenh]

The other thing to consider is that when someone bi wires they don't go from one pair of cables and then a very short time later buy another set of exactly the same cable to then bi wire, they tend to upgrade all their cable completely thus hearing a difference in cable type or buying another better set and then running one type on the bass and one type on the treble and getting the difference I described above that way, or buying the same cable as previously but quite a while after the first so electrically the original set has already deteriorated and then possibly getting a similar effect to the two different types scenario.

 

The problem with a lot of these small changes is that people never really do proper A/B tests, and more likely they convince themselves that all the extra money spent really was worth it.

[kannibal]

ok, I amend my statement to "skip running a full length cable from both sets of speaker binding posts to your receiver/amp/integrated amplifer."

finally