Bi-Amping/Bi-Wiring advice

[spminor]

I had that same question when I purchased my receiver and speakers, in regards of getting the most out of them and the 2 sets of binding posts. My sales rep told me to biwire the speakers, that way the crossover is doing what it's designed to do. I enjoy what I hear and I'm not complaining. I'm doing this with a Rotel RSX 1056 and a pair of B&W 603 S3. For your second amp use, I would use them as zone 2 speakers in a seperate room or later on buy another pair of fronts just for stereo use.

[FLZapped]

I had that same question when I purchased my receiver and speakers, in regards of getting the most out of them and the 2 sets of binding posts. My sales rep told me to biwire the speakers, that way the crossover is doing what it's designed to do.

HAHAAHAHAHHA! You're crossover is going to do what it was designed to regardless. You're sales rep is just blowing smoke up your rear so he can make a sale.

-Bruce

[hermanv]

Here we are, all those speaker manufacturers just can't wait to waste money on a second set of seriously overpriced speaker posts and then on a pair of expensive gold plated straps to short the two sets out. Boy they must all be really, really stupid to have done this for years and years.

Every time I have tried good quality speakers wired direct and wired with bi-wire, the bi-wire setup sounded better to me. Use your ears, most stores will lend you a set. If it does nothing, bring them back.

[FLZapped]

Here we are, all those speaker manufacturers just can't wait to waste money on a second set of seriously overpriced speaker posts and then on a pair of expensive gold plated straps to short the two sets out. Boy they must all be really, really stupid to have done this for years and years.

Don't worry, they're charging you plenty for it. They are only caving into demand, probably created by some writer who wrote some flowery article on how great it was.

-Bruce

[BillyB]

Don't worry, they're charging you plenty for it. They are only caving into demand, probably created by some writer who wrote some flowery article on how great it was.

-Bruce

Considering the money audiophiles are willing to spend on components the investment of bi-wiring is not that dear in the whole scheme of things.While you obviously don't believe in the merits of bi-wiring you can't possibly think that reputable speaker companies who are dedicated to their craft simply put the extra terminals on the back of their speakers just for show. That may be the case with some manufacturers but it certainly isn't a given with every speaker.Some speakers will reward you for the extra money spent on bi-wiring them but of course if you start spending crazy money on the bi-wire cables than like anything else you risk getting into the land of diminishing returns.I will post after my new Quads are connected to my Tara Lab Prism Bi-wire speaker cables and will experiment with 2 or 4 terminal connecting methods.Quad highly recommends bi-wiring their speakers and I'm taking them at their word unless proven otherwise.Speaker companies don't make any extra money on the sale of Bi-wire speaker cables that I'm aware of.

[Woochifer]

Considering the money audiophiles are willing to spend on components the investment of bi-wiring is not that dear in the whole scheme of things.While you obviously don't believe in the merits of bi-wiring you can't possibly think that reputable speaker companies who are dedicated to their craft simply put the extra terminals on the back of their speakers just for show. That may be the case with some manufacturers but it certainly isn't a given with every speaker.Some speakers will reward you for the extra money spent on bi-wiring them but of course if you start spending crazy money on the bi-wire cables than like anything else you risk getting into the land of diminishing returns.I will post after my new Quads are connected to my Tara Lab Prism Bi-wire speaker cables and will experiment with 2 or 4 terminal connecting methods.Quad highly recommends bi-wiring their speakers and I'm taking them at their word unless proven otherwise.Speaker companies don't make any extra money on the sale of Bi-wire speaker cables that I'm aware of.

Speaker companies do put the dual terminals on their products even though in interviews, the designers for some manufacturers will acknowledge that they do so due to demand rather than any findings on their part of any improvements. Klipsch is one example. If a significant cross-section of the audiophile community believes in bi-wiring, then the speaker companies risk losing sales by not going with the dual binding posts. The audio industry is a business, and any good business plan entails making decisions based on satisfying demand for the intended market. As far as I'm aware of, Dunlavy, McIntosh, and Dynaudio have also discounted the importance of biwiring. I don't recall if any of them went to dual binding posts in order to appease potential buyers. Dunlavy and McIntosh reps used to pretend to switch out the speaker cables during demo sessions, and let listeners fawn all over themselves over how much of an "improvement" they heard before informing them that in fact nothing changed between listenings.

[BillyB]

Speaker companies do put the dual terminals on their products even though in interviews, the designers for some manufacturers will acknowledge that they do so due to demand rather than any findings on their part of any improvements. Klipsch is one example. If a significant cross-section of the audiophile community believes in bi-wiring, then the speaker companies risk losing sales by not going with the dual binding posts. The audio industry is a business, and any good business plan entails making decisions based on satisfying demand for the intended market. As far as I'm aware of, Dunlavy, McIntosh, and Dynaudio have also discounted the importance of biwiring. I don't recall if any of them went to dual binding posts in order to appease potential buyers. Dunlavy and McIntosh reps used to pretend to switch out the speaker cables during demo sessions, and let listeners fawn all over themselves over how much of an "improvement" they heard before informing them that in fact nothing changed between listenings.

I understand your point.I am under the impression that a speakers crossover design is the main factor in whether or not bi-wiring that specific speaker will make a significant sonic improvement.I don't know enough about this subject as to the science behind it to be able to say I know this to be fact.This seems like one of those subjects that is ripe for different opinions but I would think there must be a somewhat definitive answer to this question based on actual science not opinion and would love to hear from someone trained or involved in speaker design and/or building.If I'm wrong then this is just another one of those subjective audiophile subjects that never really ends with anyone proving their opinion based on fact.The ears don't lie so maybe I will learn something when auditioning my own Quads.If I don't hear a difference I will have no problem with that as the Bi-wire wasn't that ridiculously expensive and I won't consider it a major defeat.I would imagine at that point I would just twist the speaker leads together and enjoy the benefits of a heavier gauge wire.I paid a fee to have the amp end of the cable pre-finished with spades but the speaker ends are just stripped back as I use the binding post not the Banana plug style of connection.

[FLZapped]

Considering the money audiophiles are willing to spend on components the investment of bi-wiring is not that dear in the whole scheme of things.While you obviously don't believe in the merits of bi-wiring you can't possibly think that reputable speaker companies who are dedicated to their craft simply put the extra terminals on the back of their speakers just for show. That may be the case with some manufacturers but it certainly isn't a given with every speaker.Some speakers will reward you for the extra money spent on bi-wiring them but of course if you start spending crazy money on the bi-wire cables than like anything else you risk getting into the land of diminishing returns.I will post after my new Quads are connected to my Tara Lab Prism Bi-wire speaker cables and will experiment with 2 or 4 terminal connecting methods.Quad highly recommends bi-wiring their speakers and I'm taking them at their word unless proven otherwise.Speaker companies don't make any extra money on the sale of Bi-wire speaker cables that I'm aware of.

Because the marketing department runs things, not engineering.

-Bruce