# Bi wiring question



## petalvonriddle (Nov 29, 2009)

Great article on speaker wire. One related question is on bi wiring my B&W Speakers. Does Bi Wire have an audible difference than straight wiring? Thanks for any feedback on this.


----------



## dyohn (Apr 17, 2008)

This is a bit like asking "which religion is better?" In MY opinion, there are no audible gains from bi-wiring. Others will disagree. I suggest you try it and see for yourself.


----------



## bambino (Feb 21, 2010)

I have heard the same thing. Maybe just changing the jumpers to wire is somthing else i've heard of doing. like dave said all you can do is try.


----------



## lsiberian (Mar 24, 2009)

petalvonriddle said:


> Great article on speaker wire. One related question is on bi wiring my B&W Speakers. Does Bi Wire have an audible difference than straight wiring? Thanks for any feedback on this.


Only if you don't have enough gauge. Bi-amping only works well with active speaker systems.

Remember you amp forms a circuit with the speakers so as long as you have adequate wire the resistance is negligible.


----------



## glaufman (Nov 25, 2007)

lsiberian said:


> Only if you don't have enough gauge. Remember you amp forms a circuit with the speakers so as long as you have adequate wire the resistance is negligible.


+1



> Bi-amping only works well with active speaker systems


This has been debated, and requires some very careful setup. Some actually believe that if you compare to a decent single amp, most differences heard have more to do with improper setup than technological advantage.


----------



## Anthony (Oct 5, 2006)

Audioholics did a nice article on biwiring a few years ago where they delved into the math and what's known as a "Transfer Function" in signals analysis. Basically they modeled all aspects of the amp to speaker circuit with and without biwiring.

Their conclusion was that the the extra cable resistance *could* add some damping to the electrical path. However this was much, much lower than other factors like the crossover design, speaker impedance, and the amplifiers own output impedance -- so its audibility is questionable. My advice is to always try it for yourself, but "to thine own self be true."  Don't fool yourself into hearing a difference (tough to do, I know). But if you have the extra wire to try it, no harm in a little experiment.

Bi-amping is a completely different story. Its benefits are great, but at two very big drawbacks: cost and complexity (extra amps and not plug-and-play).


----------

