Bi wiring Speakers

Gents

What is peoples personal listening experience when adding an extra pair of speaker cable to a single wire set up?

I like the theory but are there decernable audible benefits?

I have a Chord Power Amp with switchable outputs for 1 or 2 sets of speakers (8 posts)
I have B&W Speakers with jumpers in place
I have a single run of expensive Chord speaker cable

I could of course go to a dealer and listen for myself, however I bought the speaker cable second hand and would not be prepared to pay the dealer the RRP and so it is unfair for me to abuse his facilities

What are your thoughts?
Cheers
Marvan

I've always bi-wired when possible however when I discovered internet audio forums I also discovered that the general consesnsus is that it makes bob-all difference. Reading up it seems there are technical cases (that I don't pretend to understand) to be made both ways - i.e in some cases it can make the sound worse. I experimeted by single wiring (using Chord Odyssey 2 bi-wire) - no difference. But - I don't like the brass jumper things, probably irationally. So I made up some little jumpers from nondescript 79 strand and put them in instead. Again, no difference. Quite surprising and against my expectation but there you go. Your mileage may vary.

It absolutely depends on the speakers. For most, it probably makes far more sense to use a single run of good quality cable. But for a small number of speakers the difference is very real and significant, one which no-one could fail to spot - my old SD Acoustics OBS for example. You'll probably just have to try it & see what works best for your gear and ears.

Marvan not to far from you if you need to hear/borrow some speaker cables from £5 a metre up to how much

IMO , its better to use good quality jumpers, and a good single wire cable, such as something from the T Q Tellurium range, depending on your budget.

Hi Scott
Thanks
I might get back to you once I have my new speakers

Any other opinions?
Cheers
Marvan

what speakers are you buying marvan
can let you hear bookshelfs to horns & stats

I've done bi-amping in the past and currently I'm tri-amping and I've noticed an improvement every time I've gone up a notch so to my ears I think bi-amping makes sense but then you have to try! And yes it is very dependent upon speakers, amps, etc.

I'm biamping with four mono amps. The difference over a single pair of monos is considerable.

Hi Scott
I was looking for a pair of B&W 803
Probably the older and smaller 803s
Cheers
Marvan

Hi Marvan,

My advice is to "suck it 'n' see!"

The benefits of bi-wiring are, in most cases, audible; especially if you're playing at volumes where the bass cones are really shifting somewhat. The benefit tends to be negligable at quiet volumes.

regards

Stephen

From what I have experienced it depends very much on the speakers. Speakers like Vienna Acoustics won't even allow you to bi wire since they only have a single input. While B&W recommends that their speakers be bi wired for best performance.

I bi wired mine and have noticed considerable improvement in low frequency control and reduction of high frequency fatigue. So I will also say try it out and see if it works for you.

Gents (so far)
Thank you for your kindness and helpful comments
Food for thought
I shall keep you updated
Cheers
Marvan

You will notice a difference bi-wiring. Take care as I did and thought it was better due to "Ive changed something it must be better thing us Hifi fanatics can suffer". I was using Linn K400 cable which is a dedicated biamp/wire cable and about as good as have found for the money. I recently single wired my speakers using just the bottom section of the K400 placing the jumpers on (carefully of course!) and to my amazement and annoyance the sound was far more OF A WHOLE, image had more solidity and bass was tighter more rhythmical. Basically in my case biwireing actually confused the sound. I then bought some Sterling black Mamba speaker cable and can see me ever changing it to be honest as its fantastic and one of the few cables to be significantly better than the Linn K400 stuff.

If you are using mono block amps or say Linn/Arcam type bi amping using another power amp then it sounds better but thats bi amping.