Bi-Wireing???

[ryanpreusser]

im new to this bi-wire mubo-jumbo... is it really worth it to bi-wire my JBL E80's if i only have one reciver/amp? and if so what will be the difference?

[matt39]

Some people swear by it while others sneer at it. In my own limited experience with it there seemed to be little or no difference when doing it (just like when I tried different wire for speakers or interconnects). While there seems to be little basis in fact for a benefit, it does seem to me that it's worth trying if you're interested and it needn't cost a lot. Just get some decent speaker wire from Home Depot or Lowe's (where you can buy it cut to length for cheap) and give it a shot. If you hear a difference, then great, and if you don't hear a difference then you're not out a lot of money. People who advocate biwiring generally cite things like increased detail and more open sound but the differences seem to be subtle at best (unless, of course, you can hear them!). Personally I think speaker placement and room conditions will have more effect on the sound than biwiring. Hope this helps a bit.

Gary

[snickelfritz]

Bi-wiring purportedly allows EMF voltages generated by the woofer to be more effectively damped by the amplifier, preventing crossover saturation and midrange distortion.
The downside is that you are placing additional cable resistance, inductance and capacitance effects between the drivers at the crossover frequency.

Personally, I've found that my B&W CDM 9NT sounds better with a single run of cable.
The midrange/treble integration is noticeably smoother.

[Florian]

I have to biwire, there is no other choice. So far i have always had improvments from bi-wire over single wire on high end designs such as Magnepan, VMPS, Apogee and the big THX system.

-Flo