bi-wire virgin

[julesd68]

I'm a cable sceptic at the best of times but I want to give bi-wire a go just coz I can ...

I would like to buy a second-hand set of cables that I can sell on easily enough if they don't do anything for me - what would be the most sensible purchase? Chord?

cheers.

[Stratmangler]

http://www.audio-shack.com/product_info.php?products_id=272

Buy a drum and cut off as much as you need per run.

[Chivas]

The Van Damme blue is highly rated and cheap.
I like my anti-cables at £5/m
and Origin Live's linear flow speaker cable is also highly rated - I don't think you'll have a problem selling them on.

[RichB]

How much cable do you need... I have 2x5m of Chord Carnival Silverscreen Biwire I'm not using, approx 6 months use. Used it with a pair of MA RX1s to very good effect before i went the Rega route and no longer need biwire cable, i ditched the MA RX1s because they were rear ported and stand monut and neither Mrs R or I were ver happy with their placement! Normally retails at £12/M but I'd take £100 delivered and unterminated, its pretty heavy duty stuff so no good if you were wanting to hide it under carpets

[julesd68]

Thanks for the offer but I only need a 2-3m pair ...

cheers.

[RichB]

Thanks for the offer but I only need a 2-3m pair ...

cheers.

Cool, in which case decent alternative may be the 2x3m pair of Rega Quattro i have for sale in the Private Exhibitions bit... a bargain because of my cutting blunder I'm sure you'll agree

[Rare Bird]

Bi Wiring! Whats that then? spent all day looking through my 60's & 70's Hi-Fi mags but to no avail, no mention of this loike :scratch:

[The Grand Wazoo]

Bi Wiring! Whats that then?

I think it's when you aren't too fussed about whether you plug your male connector into a female socket or into a male socket.
...................I could be wrong though

[Rare Bird]

Dunno i'm using 2 Pin Dins at the mo :lolsign:

[The Grand Wazoo]

That's just kinky.

[pwood]

I used to biwire as it was a facility my speakers had and I thought it was worthwhile otherwise why offer the facility. so several years down the line I decided to try single wired and was well pissed off as the soundstage was far more accurate:doh:. So on advice from this great forum i bought a set of Sterling Black Mamba cables and can't see me ever changing them as for £70 they are amazing and if they had a big name on them could easily be sold for 4 times that.

Biamping is totally different and worth trying but it depends on your kit.

Still if you go with two lengths of Van Dam or their biwire version its not a lot of dosh if you want to have a play about.

[julesd68]

hi Paul,

I've now got a couple of sets of cable to experiment with - a single wire silver cable by RS Audio and a cheap bi-wire set by QED. Not had time to play with either yet ...

Will be interested to see if either offer anything different to my Atlas cable - I did actually try the Black Mamba a while back but wasn't able to perceive any difference to the Atlas. I now have a considerably better system though, so I am interested to see if speaker cable will make more of a difference. Am keeping an open mind! :eyebrows:

cheers.

[pwood]

Mind and upgrade the jumpers by using a bit of decent speaker cable albeit it depends on the quality of the metal links. Atlas stuff is decent quality so night and day type stuff is highly unlikely. BTW you will notice with single wiring that sound can change depending on whether you plug into the top or bottom terminals as well...more for you to play with. Have fun and dont get to :confused:

[julesd68]

Is it possible to change speaker cables while amps are switched on without blowing anything up or damaging speakers? :doh:

[Reid Malenfant]

If you are careful & no music is playing then yes, It's not recommended though even if you are just unplugging & plugging in banana plugs.

Always best by far to switch off the amp or power amp, in which case there is no chance of shorting anything out while the amp is live. When it's off it doesn't matter just as long as the short isn't there when it's switched on ;)

I wouldn't do it & I used to be in the electronics industry so I would be probably more careful than you :eyebrows:

So don't try it is my advice!

[pwood]

Is it possible to change speaker cables while amps are switched on without blowing anything up or damaging speakers? :doh:

Never a good idea dont be tempted its not worth the risk to your gear.

[julesd68]

If I switch the amps off and on again briefly, just to switch the cable, do they stay "warmed up" ? :scratch:

[Reid Malenfant]

Well they generally won't cool down too quickly whether they be solid state or valves. If you are talking banana plugs then don't even worry about it as the job could be done in a couple of minutes ;)

[greenhomeelectronics]

If you ever go near Bracknell you are welcome to rummage through my vast speaker cable box and help yourself to some suitable cable. I have all sorts of stuff that has accumulated over the years, give us a bell or message me via our web site if you want to come over as I work funny hours.
Dave.

[julesd68]

A most kind offer Dave!

Still enjoying the mint A&R T21 tuner you supplied me with - it's a little beaut :)

[freefallrob]

I like this stuff http://www.supracables.co.uk/speakercables/spkrrondo.html

Supra Rondo 4x2.5

Rob.

[realysm42]

When bi-wiring, do you use one type of cable for the mids/bass and tweeter, or is that being far too anal about it?

[Reid Malenfant]

I have an active system which is 4 way. I use 6mm^2 cable on the bass & lower mid, 4mm^2 on the mid & 2.5mm^2 on the tweeter.

It's not really anal, different frequencies require different things :)

Besides you save money buying the thinner stuff :rfl:

[realysm42]

Mark, is it possible to over do it on speaker cable width?

For example, if you want to make decent copper bi-wire cables yourself, is 13mm too much (amp end)?

[pwood]

I forgot to mention I used to use ECosse ES something dedicated biwire cable which was solid core for the tweeter and multistranded for the woofer. It was suggested by them years ago when I was going to get two lengths of 4PR Kimber. It certainly sounded different in any system A used it in over the Linn K400 biwire I was using. Then a couple of years ago after reading how little Russ Andrews valued the biwire idea due to amp compatability time smear etc I single wired the K400 back on and :brickwall: vocals were more centralised the sound more coherent and well it was just more musical. Biwireing seemed to project the sound wider but at the same time confused the image. How annoying to think I had been listening to this for years. So on advice gained here got Black Mamba single wire set and am well happy with it.

FWIW My ONKYO 875 can be used to biamp which was also used for a while but I found again that coherance and image solidity suffered probably due to some inconsistancy in the Onkyos amps and the fact the same power supply was doing more work but Im no genius in things electrical so I am making some big assumptions.

[Reid Malenfant]

Mark, is it possible to over do it on speaker cable width?

For example, if you want to make decent copper bi-wire cables yourself, is 13mm too much (amp end)?
You may have taken what I said about cable dimensions the wrong way Martin.

When I mentioned 6mm cable I meant a cross sectional area of 6mm^2 or 6mm squared which is actually a conductor diameter of 2.765mm in the case of a solid core, or a tad more for stranded. When that's insulated & paired with a second cable it ends up about 13mm accross by 6.5mm thick.

Then again I might have got it wrong, so let me know & we'll see if we can come to a consensus :D