Does Bi wiring improve sound

Yes
No
Cant tell
Dont care

 

I put 'yes' but it depends on the speakers (crossover quality/design) as much as the additional wire.

Replace the jumper bars with decent/matching wire and spend the rest on muzak :music:.

 

I put "No" because IMO 99% of the difference that people hear from bi-wiring would be obtained by just losing the crappy jumpers and replacing them with proper cable.

I guess my real answer should be "Don't care" because my speakers (like many other quality speakers) only have single wire terminals :MILD:

Michael.

 

I started down the active road by biwiring. No difference. Then came biamping. Ditto. Then came active. BIG difference!

 

Ditto (I agree with you again )

 

My experience is limited. However, when I open the case of an amplifier the upper and lower pair connectors are simply join with a short length of wire. Therefore, from my understanding it do not matter if you use one or the other pair nor would joining both pair with separate wire towards the speakers.

Hook it up and it confirm my suspicion. I vote no.

 

Wolfgang,

So, let me get this straight. You haven't tried it, but you know it doesnt work

IMO, there are rather too many opinions voiced on these forums from 'experts' who have never actually tried anything! (thats a general comment not just aimed at you, and not just about biwiring btw)

 

I tried it on my previous speakers, didnt notice any difference to my ears
wouldnt mind trying bi-amping sometime

 

Biamping is completely different, as in 1 amplifer per set of drivers, another psu per set of driver, increased sound stage/depth speed and dynamics and for the benefit of the tape, Mr ranson image stereo type not mono!!!, if you didn't notice this, you would a serial Tones
Now bi-wiring, can work, but I've had mixed results, the Monitors responed very well to bi-wiring, (again cable type/sort has a difference as well), my current speakers are bi-wired (Tried single wire + jumpers, worked as well, but not what I was looking for).
Have 6 sets of speaker cables (all different makes) bi-wired and 4 single sets, with a mulitiude of jumpers, they all produce different results, some good other bad, it does make a difference, how much, depends on kit/room/etc, but some of the differenices aint subtle, these are just my experiances.
I personaly use 2<>4 bi-wire, I can also use the same wire in single & jumper format, I perfer bi<>wire for the sound it gives, you may not, but you need to try for yourself. Wm

 

i'm with michael in that the jumpers that most manufacturers provide are a bit kak and replacing them will give most of the improvements of bi-wiring. that said when robbo was messing about with various bits of isolda and elephand wang speaker cable i did prefer the bi-wired kimber to everything else so there may just be something in it.
bi-amping can make a difference if you have pig to drive speakers but it's not a huge one and can bring special problems of it;s own if not using identical amps.
cheers


julian

 

Well for me I could tell the difference but I prefered single wire so I guess that's a NO. Chaning the jumpers is good thou'
Donut

 

If you read my post again I did say I hook it up and give it the benefit of doubt but no unfortunately I was not convince after my own experiment.

 

Anyone know how much those jumbers cost? I can't imagine it'll be more than a few pence. It intrigues me that manufacturers can't use something more substantial than a thin strip of brass even on fairly expensive speakers.

Some of the best speakers I've heard such as older Tannoy DC's, Dynaudio and SFs don't even offer this possibility, so perhaps a "good" crossover design should make this rather academic. The cynic in me believes it was just a marketing gimmick, not to sell more speaker cable but to simply be able to tell the customers that their units are more "tweakable". I suppose a similar argument as used against certain car manufacturers for offering adjustable dampers and suspension. Some of the cynical journalist were asking why can't they get it right themselves.

I have tried biwiring and couldn't tell the difference. As for biamping, that works a treat, giving better control, (or should I say, "wot Tony said" ).

 

Hmmm

Tried it on various speakers with mixed results.

Audio Note "J" sounded worse (I kid you not!) Got all rough and spitty.

My current Tannoy DMT12 have the biggest jumpers and terminals you have ever seen so it kinda rules out replacing the jumpers. Bi-wiring made a decent and repeatably noticable difference to them.

Suck it and see, mind you it depends if you have spare cable or not.

I'm an advocate of bi-amping - used to use two Audio Innovations Series 800MkII power amps to drive a pair of Snells and it worked an absolute treat.

Active is the bizz though and a big pair of ATC's or PMC's are just gobsmacking. I was completely bowled over when I heard the PMC's and have yet to hear anything and I mean ANYTHING that comes close apart from perhaps a pair of B&W801's driven by a dirty great big Krell!

 

801's & a FPB 600 eh? humm, really draging the barrel a but there, still Brighton, have to be carefull of spiraling property prices due to an influx of weathy london escapee's and Coffin dodgers clogging up the main through fares to post offices on thursday mornings, must play havoc with your viens.
Yeah, I can see why you like PMC's, they do trash the ATC's by a fair way, plus they do proper bass as well, must be those well excutied transmission lines. can't help feeling you need more out of life, like a full set of marshall stacks, enscewing 50%+ feedback maybe?.

 

I've only tried bi-wiring in Mission's and IME bi-wiring does make a difference. But as stated before it depends on the design of the speaker.

 

But have you tried replacing thse 'orrible jumper bars with piece of proper cable?

That will probably sound even better retaining the life and soul of of the music rather than diffusing it into space.