[gme109]

I recently had a conversation with a dealer regarding speaker wire. I wanted to make an upgrade and asked him what he had in my price range. My speakers are bi-wired now, and I wanted to keep them that way. He suggested that I get one pair of speaker cables of a higher quality vs. two lesser quality pairs. He also said that a lot of times a speaker will actually sound better with one pair vs. a bi-wire hook-up, as there is less interaction between the two pairs. Will I thought I'd try for myself with the cables I had, to see which sounded best. First I did some listening to familiar tracks with my current bi-wire set up, then removed one pair of cables and added jumpers. Well it wasn't a huge difference, but the single run sounded a little more coherent, and focused. I then took it one step further, and connected the hook-up wire coming off the crossover to one set of binding posts, now I didn't need jumpers. The improvement was such, that I had a hard time believing it. Things were not only sounding a lot more coherent and focused, but much smoother with greater detail and presents. Has anyone less found that a single run sounded better than a bi-wire arrangement. If I remember correctly, there are a few speaker manufactures such as Thiel, that do not believe in bi-wiring.

[TONEPUB]

Not sure.

Way back about 15 years ago, everyone swore by bi-wiring, and now
a lot of engineers have fallen off the bus.  I know that many
 of the new models I've seen are not bi wired anymore, and when I
get a chance to talk to the engineers they always say "It didn't sound
any different either way"

So, on one level Im not sure what to believe. This kind of question goes
a bit with that thread about "what tweeks do you use that you don't belive
in?"

Honestly, with decent cable, I've never heard a difference, however Im sure
people will argue with me till the cows come home on this one!

[TomW16]

A few months ago Frank Van Alstine of Audio by Van Alstine mentioned that he was going to experiment with bi wiring and report back but I don't remember seeing a post with results.  Frank decided to conduct the bi wire experiment after reading an article that was based in science rather than voodoo.

Maybe he will read this thread and report back.

On a related note, I would think that bi amping would have an audible effect, however, now we're talking about an electronic crossover, multiple runs of cables and separate amps. 

Tom

[PhilNYC]

Has anyone less found that a single run sounded better than a bi-wire arrangement. If I remember correctly, there are a few speaker manufactures such as Thiel, that do not believe in bi-wiring.

After a lot of experimenting with bi-wiring, I have found this to be true...that I far prefer single-wiring over bi-wiring. 

[Rhhm]

Something to try if your speakers have two sets of terminals for bi-wiring and you decide to run a single pair with jumpers...  I heard about this a few years ago from a credible source (Eichmann, I believe).  With the jumpers in place, run the positive to either the bass or mid-range/high frequency postive terminal, and run the negative to the other bass or mid-range terminal...  I'd be interested to hear about what you might find...

[PhilNYC]

Something to try if your speakers have two sets of terminals for bi-wiring and you decide to run a single pair with jumpers...  I heard about this a few years ago from a credible source (Eichmann, I believe).  With the jumpers in place, run the positive to either the bass or mid-range/high frequency postive terminal, and run the negative to the other bass or mid-range terminal...  I'd be interested to hear about what you might find...

I've tried this and many other configurations; none has the coherence that single-wiring has.  The closest IMHO was biwiring the speakers, then using a jumper to connect the negative terminals....this improved the coherence, while maintaining some of the "air" that the bi-wiring introduced.  But still, not as coherent and natural-sounding as single-wiring.

IMHO, of course!

[Soundbitten]

Most likely , instead of a definite yes or no answer , it depends on the speaker in use  .

[Wayner]

I have found that removing the jumper plate from bi-wireable speakers and replacing it with real wire improves the sound.

W

[TONEPUB]

Most likely , instead of a definite yes or no answer , it depends on the speaker in use  .

Definitely, good call!

[WEEZ]

Wayner, you nailed it, buddy. 

[PaulFolbrecht]

I have found that removing the jumper plate from bi-wireable speakers and replacing it with real wire improves the sound.

W

This is a well-known tweak.  It works.

I have also noted improvement going from bi to single-wire.

The reason bi-wiring gives any benefit, if it does, it due to the reduction of resistance the double-run gives.  If the cables' resistance is already negligible, you gain nothing and incur the penalty of possible loss in coherence due to the signal traveling two paths.

Of course, if you're actually bi-amping, passive or active, it's another story.  However, I've preferred single-amping at least to passive bi-amping when I've tried it in my systems, due, again, to a perceived reduction in overall coherence when driving one speaker with two amps. 

I now single-wire with Anti-Cables in both my systems and am quite a happy camper.