value of bi-wireable?

[Stereobug]

I'm looking to buy some speakers but some of the good ones that are available to me in my area are bi-wireable. If I am correct, when I hook up the speakers to only one speaker cable (splice to the 4 terminals), won't I lose alot of my performance? Any information you could give would be greatly appreciated. P.S. The speakers would probably be JBL or Infinity.

[spacedeckman]

You don't have to do it, and I don't see any real value in it unless you intend to gut the speaker and utilize active crossovers and multiple amplifiers, or just bi-amp with two matching gain amplifiers. Just look at it as another thing you probably will never need. It sells product in Europe though. Means little or nothing in North America.

JBL and Infinity? You have to have more choices than that in your area. Look for any of the API lines (Energy, Mirage, Athena), Acoustic Energy, Paradigm, PSB, KEF, Quad, and a host of others. I'm just not a very big fan of JBL or Infinity's current offerings, well, for the past few generations.


Space

[Stereobug]

How would I connect the speakers if I use just one wire?

[Debbi]

...with 12 guage wire and did'nt notice a difference. I did observe that it is a pain threading that much wire through receiver terminals and could'nt help but think it just added to the possibility of stray wires creating a short.Of course you could piggyback banana terminals eliminating that hazard if you have another 3 inch clearance behind your receiver.Wire is cheap....give it a try, but I would not buy speakers simply because they had that feature.

[BrianUDLaw]

Here are a couple articles that might answer some of your questions.

http://www.whathifi.com/newsMainTemplate.asp?storyID=60&newssectionID=3

http://www.whathifi.com/newsMainTemplate.asp?storyID=59&newssectionID=3

[Pat D]

I'm looking to buy some speakers but some of the good ones that are available to me in my area are bi-wireable. If I am correct, when I hook up the speakers to only one speaker cable (splice to the 4 terminals), won't I lose alot of my performance? Any information you could give would be greatly appreciated. P.S. The speakers would probably be JBL or Infinity.

Assuming the wire is of adequate gauge in the first place, two strand wire should be fine. Two wires is equivalent to a guage about 3 larger, but in most situations, you don't need larger gauges. Some of us just get 12 gauge wire and forget about it. Here's a link which has a Table relating guage, wire length, and speaker impedance; there's is nothing to prevent you from using larger wire if you wish.

http://home.earthlink.net/~rogerr7/wire.htm

More stringent recommendations can be found here:

http://www.pcavtech.com/techtalk/wire_size/index.htm

Many manufacturers offer biwirable terminals because many customers want it. But any of the ones I have seen have jumpers between the woofer and tweeter terminals, so the two strands are quite sufficient to connect up to the speaker.

The crossovers to the woofer and tweeter in a two way system are connected at the speaker terminals. If you biwire, they will be connected at the output terminals of your amplifier. No one seems to have proved this makes an audible difference as far as we can tell. If someone had, surely someone would tell us. Here's an analysis:

http://www.pcavtech.com/techtalk/biwire/index.htm

[mtrycraft]

Here are a couple articles that might answer some of your questions.

http://www.whathifi.com/newsMainTemplate.asp?storyID=60&newssectionID=3

http://www.whathifi.com/newsMainTemplate.asp?storyID=59&newssectionID=3

Unfortunately they have no idea what they are talking about. There is no benefit to buy wiring, zero, none. Total nonsense.

[Beckman]

I have tried biwiring with my infinity il40's. There is no difference in sound at all. Like what was mentioned, biamping is suppose to sound better, but for the money it would probablty be better to buy one really good amp over two lesser amps (just my opinion, I have not tried this).

My speakers came with metal plates to bridge between the two sets of posts, or 12 AWG wire can be used.

If I were you I would not base my decision when purchasing speakers on weather or not they can be biamped/wired, but strictly on how they sound.

[mtrycraft]

I have tried biwiring with my infinity il40's. There is no difference in sound at all. Like what was mentioned, biamping is suppose to sound better, but for the money it would probablty be better to buy one really good amp over two lesser amps (just my opinion, I have not tried this).

My speakers came with metal plates to bridge between the two sets of posts, or 12 AWG wire can be used.

If I were you I would not base my decision when purchasing speakers on weather or not they can be biamped/wired, but strictly on how they sound.


To do bi amping properly, one needs to use an active crossover and discard all the passive ones in the speakers. So, While you will get better performance, it isn't an easy task to do this.

[spacedeckman]

There should be metal jumpers between the two pairs of terminals. If not, cut two pieces of wire about 3" long and strip one end. Place it alongside the lower terminal on one side and measure along the wire where it needs to be cut to come out slightly above the top of the second terminal. Cut it there and strip that end. Stuff it in the holes. If you change things around a lot, you may consider getting spade lugs to do this connection, or use the spades or possibly bannana plugs on your speaker wires.

Hope this answers your questions

Space

[bturk667]

I'm looking to buy some speakers but some of the good ones that are available to me in my area are bi-wireable. If I am correct, when I hook up the speakers to only one speaker cable (splice to the 4 terminals), won't I lose alot of my performance? Any information you could give would be greatly appreciated. P.S. The speakers would probably be JBL or Infinity.

The best way to find out is to go down to your local hardware store and but some inexpensive bulk cable. Then go home and let your ears be the judge. Or see if your local dealer were you are looking at the speakers, and ask if they could give you a demostration.