Bi-Wire or not?

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JayMc

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Bi-Wire or not?
« on: 26 Feb 2011, 04:01 am »
Today I ordered Bryston xlr interconnects and the Bryston speaker wire, bi-wired. I have been reading through old posts tonight on the new speaker wire and one member had ordered two pair (4) speaker wires before the new bi-wire (able) speaker wire. James Tanner seemed to suggest that he should stick with the 4 speaker wires instead of internal bi-wiring?

My question, since I have time to change/amend my order: should I bi-wire within  the new wire or run two wires to each speaker or not bi-wire at all and just use my "jumpers" to bi-wire?

Does the internal bi-wiring degrade the performance of the speaker wire by reducing the guage of the wire to each terminal; that seems to be what I gathered from my reading of posts from a few months ago? (I'm a total novice)

James Tanner

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Re: Bi-Wire or not?
« Reply #1 on: 26 Feb 2011, 12:03 pm »
Today I ordered Bryston xlr interconnects and the Bryston speaker wire, bi-wired. I have been reading through old posts tonight on the new speaker wire and one member had ordered two pair (4) speaker wires before the new bi-wire (able) speaker wire. James Tanner seemed to suggest that he should stick with the 4 speaker wires instead of internal bi-wiring?

My question, since I have time to change/amend my order: should I bi-wire within  the new wire or run two wires to each speaker or not bi-wire at all and just use my "jumpers" to bi-wire?

Does the internal bi-wiring degrade the performance of the speaker wire by reducing the guage of the wire to each terminal; that seems to be what I gathered from my reading of posts from a few months ago? (I'm a total novice)

Hi JayMc,,

What length of speaker wire?

james

vvv

Re: Bi-Wire or not?
« Reply #2 on: 26 Feb 2011, 12:09 pm »
For your interest JayMc: There is not a single scientific paper (i.e. no proof) that bi-wiring has an audible effect. There is a paper showing that bi-wiring may imply a measurable difference, but that difference is very very small. My advice is therefore to forget all about bi-wiring.

Elizabeth

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Re: Bi-Wire or not?
« Reply #3 on: 26 Feb 2011, 01:02 pm »
proof. Who needs proof. I have found (from experience, for my setup) that actually using separate wires from the same posts on the amp to the separate posts (for biwiring) on the speaker does sound slightly better. The first issue is: would a single set of twice as expensive wire sound better? the second issue is does the extra money seem well spent?
====================
One way to find out is use some cheap wire, try single, then dual wires and see if it sounds better to you. THEN buy some expensive wire. (ordinary A/C zip cord will work for the test, no problem)
====================
This is very hard to answer for other people with other systems.
I have NOT personally purchased twice as expensive wires to test that idea. I HAVE used cheap wire to try the biwiring idea.
i DO biwire my Magnepan 3.6s from me Bryston 4BSST2 with Kimber 8TC speaker cable/WBT spades and find it makes a slight improvement in clarity.
Again, whether it is worth the money is a different story. I do it because i had part the wire anyway. and the WBT connectors already. if I had to buy new wire... ahhh depends if I felt like blowing the money on foolishness or not. I probably would, but that is just me.
Though i am not into the best cables i can afford. i think cables should be only a modest portion of a system cost. Good, but not break the bank. (10% tops of system cost IMO)
So my spending $500. on wires/connectors when the speakers cost $5,300. is not a problem.
This is my take on it. Others notions may vary.

vvv


Daniel Datchev

Re: Bi-Wire or not?
« Reply #5 on: 26 Feb 2011, 03:45 pm »
Hi I don't know what you have read and what you know about this issue, but years ago I found an study made by Jonh Risch, a person well know among audioholics. The simulation he made lead to undoubt conclusion that there is intermodulation between drivers regardless the crossover. The impact was reduced by separating the wires from amplifier to speakers input. So the bass, mid and treble can use their own wire. I personaly use tri-wired setup to my speakers. They are not expensive, the same Bryston used to sell in their web site, brand Van-Damme 2-4 GBP per meter.

JayMc

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Re: Bi-Wire or not?
« Reply #6 on: 26 Feb 2011, 09:00 pm »
Hi JayMc,,

What length of speaker wire?

james

The speaker wire I ordered were 6 foot each side; mindful that the shorter the speaker wire the better;

I presently have years old Straightwire Octave bi-wired (10ft each side); run bare into my speakers and when I looked at them last night there are 2 wires going into each of the 4 posts or terminals, guessing about 12 or 14 gauge each wire. Though I do like to keep things simple I also want the best performance from the new wire and most improvement.

Your recommendation?

Also my order won't go through until Tuesday, so not a problem to change.

Thanks

James Tanner

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Re: Bi-Wire or not?
« Reply #7 on: 26 Feb 2011, 09:40 pm »
The speaker wire I ordered were 6 foot each side; mindful that the shorter the speaker wire the better;

I presently have years old Straightwire Octave bi-wired (10ft each side); run bare into my speakers and when I looked at them last night there are 2 wires going into each of the 4 posts or terminals, guessing about 12 or 14 gauge each wire. Though I do like to keep things simple I also want the best performance from the new wire and most improvement.

Your recommendation?

Also my order won't go through until Tuesday, so not a problem to change.

Thanks

Hi Jay,

Our cable also has two wires per connection in single wire setup.  I would stick with that.





james

JayMc

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Re: Bi-Wire or not?
« Reply #8 on: 26 Feb 2011, 10:32 pm »
Hi Jay,

Our cable also has two wires per connection in single wire setup.  I would stick with that.





james

So that I am certain; you are saying to switch to the single wire setup as shown in the picture and forget about bi-wiring altogether? Thanks.

Jay

niels


Robert D

Re: Bi-Wire or not?
« Reply #10 on: 27 Feb 2011, 01:16 am »
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=84047.0


Thank you niels   :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: I did not know how to post the hole topic.

Robert

werd

Re: Bi-Wire or not?
« Reply #11 on: 27 Feb 2011, 08:27 pm »
http://www.theaudiocritic.com/downloads/article_1.pdf

Thats 11 years old, hopefully he has come to grips with his dogma by now.

PRELUDE

Re: Bi-Wire or not?
« Reply #12 on: 28 Feb 2011, 01:55 am »
One time I tried to count the speaker manufactures and cable manufactures but I cannot remember that what happend so I just gave up.But I am very sure that we have more cable manufactuers then speaker by now and no wonder why :thumb:

ChrisBo

Re: Bi-Wire or not?
« Reply #13 on: 28 Feb 2011, 05:09 am »
Just my 2cents ...

Given the great price on the Bryston wires go for a shotgun bi wire set up ... your basically purchasing one pair for each channel ... with my gear this set up produced better detail and it was noticable.


BrystonFan

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Re: Bi-Wire or not?
« Reply #14 on: 28 Feb 2011, 11:43 pm »
The Bryston amps lend themselves very well for the bi-wire.
I use both the spade & banana terminals on the amp.(4BSST2)