Bi-amping

[arrogantyeti]

Audioreview newbie here with a question I've been wondering about a while now. Here goes.

While I've never owned any, I am aware of plenty of loudspeakers that offer the option of bi-wiring, allowing the use of two amps to power them. My question is, what benefit does this offer? More power? Less strain? Is there a noticeable difference to the consumer when bi-wiring is used as opposed to single wiring on the same speaker? And lastly, would bi-wiring with a receiver that has A/B main connections be beneficial? I'm asking because I'm thinking about buying a set of Swans, either the 2.1 bookshelves or 4.1 floor-standers, and both have bi-wiring capabilities, and I'll hopefully be using a Boston Acoustics AVR7100 A/V receiver with those. And while I'm at it, has anyone heard the Swans? Either of them? They look absolutely gorgeous, and the price is right, and the few reviews I've seen have been very positive, but I would hold the opinions of this forum in higher regard than those of the average newegg.com reviewer.

Wow, that's a lot of inquiries I know , but I appreciate any insights you have. I'm looking for both theoretical (in theory, bi-wiring is better because...etc) and answers by experience.

[hermanv]

In my experience, some speakers seem to benefit quite a lot from bi-wiring, with others there's almost no effect. Borrow some cables and listen for yourself..

In order to get the best out of bi-wiring, you need to double up on the speaker cable, don't split the existing cable into half as meany leads or gauge per section.

As far as therory goes there are several complex explanations involving feedback impedances and amplifier stabilty, these are often disputed. There is a simple one is that the very high currrents needed by the woofer(s) modulate (intermodulate actually) the mid/tweeter signals across any non-linear impedance that might be present in the speaker/crossover/amplifier current loop.