Irrational urge to bi-wire

[Reffc]

It's not quite so straightforward as that: http://theartofsound.net/forum/showt...-and-Bi-wiring

In your opinion Barry, not in mine. That link says nothing new or authoritative to make any sort of evidential based case for it, and it really is that straightforward in engineering terms; Bi-amping is another thing entirely. However, people hear what they want to hear and playing around with hifi is all part of the fun. Not really looking to get into a debate on it, but have offered some sensible, no-nonsense advice and explanation which can be taken at face value or ignored as one wants to. I have already commented that there are exceptions to the rule and these (I repeat) are largely crossover and load dependant. For a well designed/matched crossover, there are more drawbacks than merits for bi-wiring, and most engineers would agree that there's nothing of value to be had by wasting the money on the extra cable lengths.

[Stryder5]

I found that bi-wiring my speakers made a small but audible advance, bi-wiring and bi-amping using one amp for low frequencies and one amp for high frequency, made another advance in sound quality. I offer no technical answers for this, just my ears, my wife also hears this difference, I respect her comments as she is an opera singer of some note.

[struth]

Ive bi amped before and felt i got a small advantage, and also got mono blocks and find them good under right circumstances. Currently just use 1 in stereo mode. Like most things audio, there can be differences depending on systems , but deffo go with removing the usual brass link and using some cable, pref what your using.. Ive cut a bit off before making them up before to use. Think changing cables is perhaps more likely to give improvements for most.
Dont doubt the ones who have found benefit though, as its possible.

[DGP]

I've been using a passive bi-amp/bi-wire system for the last 25 years with twin Audiolab 8000Ps driving Tannoy Definition D500 with very early Cable talk (monstrous blue stuff like skirting board). I remember auditioning bi-wire options first and was not convinced. Bi-wiring seems to me to be very amp/speaker dependent - I'm not enough of an electronics whizz to know what connecting the two parts of the passive crossover back at the amp terminals does but Reffc's comments seem to chime with experience.
DGP

[Macca]

I found that bi-wiring my speakers made a small but audible advance, bi-wiring and bi-amping using one amp for low frequencies and one amp for high frequency, made another advance in sound quality. I offer no technical answers for this, just my ears, my wife also hears this difference, I respect her comments as she is an opera singer of some note.

I think with passive bi-amping it only makes a difference if the amps are at their limit so removing some of the stress on the amps will improve the sound. Although a tweeter is not hard to drive so even that is debatable - on paper at least.

Bi-wiring I did for years until I joined here and was told it was pointless. Now I mostly use vintage speakers so can't bi-wire anyway. I've also experimented with using wire jumpers instead of the brass jumpers - could not hear any difference.

[StanleyB]

Individual ground and signal wiring to different parts of a PCB circuit has shown to have great benefits. See star grounding. From a technical point of view, bi-wiring would keep the distortion from the two drivers away from each other, and termination them at the amps output, where the amp's feedback loop would stand a better chance of making corrections.
There have been tests that have shown that distortion at the amp's output is higher in bi-wiring. That is to be expected. In the normal wiring configuration the distortion feedback path from the two drivers are cancelling each other out in the cable on their way back to the amp. But by that time the drivers have already pumped out a distorted sound.

[YNWaN]

I can't say I have vast personal experience of bi-wiring, but I have tried it on a number of speakers. When I used Epos ES14's with Naim amplification I found it made quite a significant difference (which I preferred). Now I use Yamaha NS-1000M's I also run them bi-wired to the mid and tweeter though I haven't tried them single wired (the crossover is actually completely split and the bass is separately wired to another amplifier).

[Arkless Electronics]

Keep speaker cable thick and use the shortest lengths possible and there is no advantage to bi-wiring....

[YNWaN]

Well I use thick cables - they could just about be a touch thicker, but not easily.

[Arkless Electronics]

Thickest cable of shortest length means lowest resistance and hence maximum damping factor and least effect on frequency response due to interaction with crossover.