Bi-wiring DOES work if you have external crossovers.

[Reffc]

Bi-wiring works on more or less the same principle as star grounding, and few would argue against the technical benefits of star grounding. It's funny for me to read some of the comments in this thread. As the designer of possibly the world's only bi-wiring capable speaker selector I have had literally hundreds of customers feedback on the differences that users noticed before and after they tried bi-wiring in their system. I am not claiming that it is the best thing since sliced bread. But all little bit helps when it makes an improvement to our system's performance.

I have no doubt that some people may hear improvements in their systems Stan, but I would be interested if you could point me to a single technical paper which supplies solid proof that biwiring provides any audible gains, as in measurable. You aren't star-earthing, you're doing the exact opposite by splitting the ground return between the different drivers, unless I've missed the point you were trying to make? I would also seriously question any audible benefits at the voltages in question because even with commoned ground returns, the difference between splitting the grounds and using a common ground would account for less than audible (possibly less than one quarter of one dB in cross-talk) differences. I have looked hard for any discernible benefits and have found none. I'm not the only loudspeaker designer who thinks this way either. That in itself is not concrete proof of anything, but just as you find some of these comments "funny", I reasonably question the technical merits which are often espouced without a single shred of evidence to back them up. I remain fully open minded though and genuinely would be appreciative if you could in fact show me the error of my ways!

[Reffc]

Hi Paul,

The fact remains that my speakers (WD25TEx) and one other pair (WD20T) we tried (funnily enough, both are Peter Comeau aperiodic designs) go lower, higher and give better piano tone etc. with the crossovers close to the amp. I take it this would mean that the crossovers could have been better designed or implemented (more likely) in the first place and the changes are just that - changes and as you say, each to his own.

I understand that Chris and in your particular case, the additional loop resistance provided downstream of the filter becomes additive with the drive unit impedance and does alter the crossover slightly, so it could well point towards some tweaks being necessary in the original design, who knows. I would be easily able to determine this though with a relatively simple set of comparative acoustic measurements and some simulation. Pointless in this case as your ears tell you that you prefer the outcome, but generally, my advice is that it is not a great idea to move crossovers too far from the loudspeaker they're meant to be driving as doing so will alter the impedance that the filter sees and needs to drive, albeit only slightly.