Help: Bi-wiring and cable thickness?

[Exophile]

Trying to wrap my head around bi-wiring and speaker cable thickness/gauge. I am getting a Rotel RA1572 with A and B speaker outs, and want to connect B&W 705S2 to it. Bi-wiring seems to offer advantages with clarity of sound.

With single wire (A channel only), I would guess that a gauge ~10 (2.5 mm diameter) would be OK. With bi-wiring (LF on A channel, HF on B channel), should I run two gauge ~10 cables to each speaker so total of 5 mm Cu, or could I also use a dual gauge 16 (1.3 mm), so total of 2.6 mm. Gauge 16 on its own is be a bit thin, but doubling up would correspond to a gauge 10 wire. Or split the difference in middle and go for gauge 14 (2x 1.6 mm = 3.2 mm = gauge 8)?

[Mixc]

Hi, the gauge of cable required depends on length of run, Longer run = Thicker cable.
There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing cables material purity and manufactureing process are a couple.
Also have a read of some articles relating to "The Skin effect" this may influence your decision.

Mick

[Exophile]

Thanks Mixc. My question is not about speaker cables in general, but it is an "all other things being equal" can I cut speaker cable diameter in half when bi-wiring a single speaker, or not, and why. I can see both arguments to be made, but don't know which is correct and why.

[Mixc]

Hi, The best route in most cases is to decide what you are trying to achive and work backward from that.
I think in your case as you are splitting the output from a stereo amp using the A/B, It wont make that much difference using the bi-wire option.
Bi-wire from a stereo amp gives you the oportunity to tune the sound by using different types of cable, Or reduce resistance by using thicker cable.
(I would use silver plated for the mid/top and high grade copper for the low)

To answer your question."can I cut speaker cable diameter in half when bi-wiring a single speaker"
In my opinion, as long as you consider, the current flow for the bass will be higher than the for the mid/top, Yes.
I would not suggest a 50/50 split if you are already on the lower limit of the required diameter.

Mick

[Audio Al]

I think you will find option A and B are for different pairs of speakers , so you can switch between pair A then chang over to pair B

Not sure what will happen if you try running A and B at the same time into 1 pair of speakers , it may get smoky and exspencive

[Stryder5]

I think your overcomplicating things buy decent speaker cable and use the same cable to both tweeter and bass.

I'm a believer in bi-wiring, others say they can't hear a difference.

I'm unfamiliar with cables available over there.

But Talk 3 and Fisual cables are good.

Gary

Trying to wrap my head around bi-wiring and speaker cable thickness/gauge. I am getting a Rotel RA1572 with A and B speaker outs, and want to connect B&W 705S2 to it. Bi-wiring seems to offer advantages with clarity of sound.

With single wire (A channel only), I would guess that a gauge ~10 (2.5 mm diameter) would be OK. With bi-wiring (LF on A channel, HF on B channel), should I run two gauge ~10 cables to each speaker so total of 5 mm Cu, or could I also use a dual gauge 16 (1.3 mm), so total of 2.6 mm. Gauge 16 on its own is be a bit thin, but doubling up would correspond to a gauge 10 wire. Or split the difference in middle and go for gauge 14 (2x 1.6 mm = 3.2 mm = gauge 8)?

[KindOfDaz]

With bi-wiring (LF on A channel, HF on B channel)

Any particular preference for this? I mean low frequencies on A, and not B?

[Mixc]

Any particular preference for this? I mean low frequencies on A, and not B?

Prob best to use "B" for bass.

[Exophile]

Thanks for all the pointers. I am aware that bi-wiring is not universally accepted as making a difference. The speakers have two pairs of binding posts, so no issues with shorting/smoking any equipment, if properly done, of course.

Thanks for the higher LF current consideration. Any idea on current distribution between LF and HF? 60/40 or 90/10?

Tuning with different cable types sounds intriguing, but not sure I will start off there. Re A vs B for LF/HF, I don't think it makes a difference. B for Bass has a certain logic :-)

[Ali Tait]

Al is correct. DO NOT use both sets of speaker outputs unless you are certain the speaker you are using does not dip below 8 ohms impedance at any point in it’s frequency response or you will most likely damage the amp. If you want to biwire, run both sets from the same speaker outputs.