[monsterbill]

Quick post to let you know about my good experience biwiring my RM30Ms.  There were some posts on this a few years back, but the general gist of those seem to be that the primary advantage to biwiring was that you could select cables that were optimized to the high or low frequencies.  This isn’t what I did.  Rather, I used two sets of basically identical cables, but nevertheless found that my VMPS speakers respond much better to biwiring than any of my previous speakers.

I’ve tried to biwire a few times in the past, before I had VMPS speakers, and I never found much improvement at all.  This time, I did it totally as a lark, since I had just made a new set of cables in anticipation of eventually getting second amp for biamping.

Really, really sweetened up the mids for me.  Also, much blacker background and much better depth layering.  Basically no change in the bass.

Since I wasn’t really expecting an improvement, I went back and forth a bit comparing it to the single wire, and the benefit was obvious.  Even my disinterested wife, who didn’t know I had made any changes, commented on how good the stereo sounded.

I’m not gonna say that it was “jaw dropping” or other such hyperbole, but I will say that it had a profound impact on exactly the part of tuning a lot of audiophiles obsess about—getting rid of the glare in the upper part of the presence region while not losing any musical information.

For me, this was enough of an improvement to provide at least a temporary cure to my upgraditis and just enjoy my system for a while.

I don’t really know why biwiring worked so well for me this time, when it had previously been such a waste of time.  Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the ribbon array is such an easy load, while the megawoofers are so hard to drive?

Associated components are described here: http://cgi.AudioAsylum.com/systems/1245.html

[Hipper]

My RM30Ms are the same vintage as yours and I too bi-wired.

I have well used Van der Hul Snowtrack speaker cables which were designed to go under a carpet and so consist of four identical cables combined in a flat arrangement. I don't think they're well thought of but I don't care!

I found that biwiring did change the sound in a detectable way which I considered an improvement, but I would be pushed to describe exactly what the improvements were. They're certainly not vital.

[John Casler]

I think the level of and type of improvement if any from biamping will be directly related to the wire and the gear you are using.

If you are already using some excellent and well selected cable, then the difference will likely be slight. 

We all know that direct wiring the woofers has potential.

I have single bi-wired my RM40s and currently am single wiring them, and because the cables I am using are better (WyWires) they sound equal to in some areas and better in others.

[monsterbill]

If you are already using some excellent and well selected cable, then the difference will likely be slight....I have single bi-wired my RM40s and currently am single wiring them, and because the cables I am using are better (WyWires) they sound equal to in some areas and better in others.

Hey John!

You have a lot of experience, so I'm happy to learn from you here, but your example is missing some facts needed to support your conclusion.  Did your system sound (a) noticeably better when biwiring (as opposed to single wiring) the inferior cables, and (b) more or less the same when either single or *biwiring* with two sets of WyWires?
 
FWIW, my speaker cables are Stan Warren starquads, that are made out of the same stuff Brian was using for internal hookup wire for reference speakers a few years back.  They have a pretty high capacitance, which one would think would diminish the effect of biwiring, but this hobby isn't always about logic. 

[John Casler]

Hey John!

You have a lot of experience, so I'm happy to learn from you here, but your example is missing some facts needed to support your conclusion.  Did your system sound (a) noticeably better when biwiring (as opposed to single wiring) the inferior cables, and (b) more or less the same when either single or *biwiring* with two sets of WyWires?

Hi Bill,

a) The biwire I used was called "single" biwiring.  It is when it is a "single wire" at the amp end and a "biwire" at the speaker end.  They sounded VERY GOOD, and they should have for $3000 a pair.  They were a higher level AudioQuest, and AQ separated the conductors to supposedly be advantageous to the frequencies of each binding driver set.

b)  The "single" wired WyWires (with a jumper) did sound the same or better on most every criteria of listening evaluation.

That is why I said it will depend on the quality and performance of the two cables being compared as to the result from either method.

That said, there is also a "full, twin, dual, or double" biwire which means you have two totally separate cables running from amp to speakers.

FWIW, my speaker cables are Stan Warren starquads, that are made out of the same stuff Brian was using for internal hookup wire for reference speakers a few years back.  They have a pretty high capacitance, which one would think would diminish the effect of biwiring, but this hobby isn't always about logic.

You have that right.