[Mark Ducati]

I'm sure most of you audioholics are probably aware of this... but I wasnt.


My Swan Speakers (6.1 Towers) came with Bi-Wire Connectors on the back (Two sets of Red and Black)....


I called Swan and asked them how to correctly wire the speaker cable... they told me that the 4 connections are for "Bi-Wire Speaker Cable".... that if you dont have a 4-wired cable, you simply hook up the two leads to either connection, just pick one.


Inside the speaker, there's a connector plate already that links the two connections together.... so an extra jumper cable is not necessary.


If I had biwire cable and wanted to use it, then I'd need to removed that inside connector plate.


Do ALL Bi-Wire speakers have an internal connector plate like mine to start?

 

[boozcruz33]

Some of the connector plates are on the outside (like on my Mordaunt Short MS506's), but I believe that every speaker capable of bi-wiring comes with some connector plate so they do not require bi-wiring. Now that I say that, I am sure there are some extremely high-end speakers that don't because they expect you to bi-wire them...

 

[DMF]

Tip: Don't do it. You're merely wasting wire.

 

[mrkeeling]

Tip: If you do it, be sure to REMOVE the connector plates, or you will be wasting (literally turn to waste) your amp(s).

 

[Andrzej]

Tip: try it both ways and see what you like more. I think that bi-wiring with bi-amping is definitely not a waste of wire. Bi-wiring alone probably is (depending on your gear).

 

[tsteves]

Try it single wired but replace the jumper plates with excess wire.

Those plates are a pita imo and are better off replaced before you lose them. Of course you will lose them anyway storing them in a "safe" place ime.

 

[trizt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by boozcruz33 Some of the connector plates are on the outside (like on my Mordaunt Short MS506's), but I believe that every speaker capable of bi-wiring comes with some connector plate so they do not require bi-wiring. Now that I say that, I am sure there are some extremely high-end speakers that don't because they expect you to bi-wire them...

Yeah, I heard that you need 4 mono blocks (each) to run the B&W Nautilus speakers

 

[sivadselim]

you don't need "biwire cable" to biwire, btw

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Quote:

Originally Posted by trizt Yeah, I heard that you need 4 mono blocks (each) to run the B&W Nautilus speakers

Or two big ones. Works either way.


Kal

 

[snickelfritz]

One of the main benefits of bi-wiring is more effective isolation and damping of EMF voltages from the woofer motor.

If you're running a subwoofer and high-pass filter there's probably less EMF. and less reason to bi-wire.

 

[DMF]

Quote:

One of the main benefits of bi-wiring is more effective isolation and damping of EMF voltages from the woofer motor.

Nonsense. Bi-wiring is electrically and topologically identical to mono-wiring. The woofer motor sees the same crossover, and the crossover sees the same amp. There can't be any difference.

 

[B&W700guy]

If you want to try it, not very expensive. Just use two pieces of lamp cord to each speaker. Then you can make up your mind.

 

[mpedris]

I've got a Rotel RA-02 integrated 2 channel amp connected to a pair of Quads. The Quads are bi-wirable. The Rotel has support for 2 sets of speakers, A and B.


Someone told me that when bi-wiring, it is more beneficial to use both A and B speaker outputs so that each amp-side output can be connected separately to each speaker-side input.


Is there any truth to this? And, when bi-wiring, would using both A & B speaker outputs on the amp affect the performance of the speakers in any way, as opposed to using, say, only speaker A outputs?

 

[DMF]

No, it's nonsense.


A and B connect to the same place. All that gives you is the ability to switch off the woofers and/or tweeters.


Best way to do bi-wiring is not to do bi-wiring and avoid all this confusion.

 

[jakeman]

I agree with DMF about bi-wiring where I haven't detected any sonic difference either. Bi-amping however does yield improved sound on some speakers so I would put those cables away for later testing.

 

[Tin_Cup]

I have my braided 12 ga. magnet wire speaker cables hooking up to the mids and highs posts first then I use jumpers (magnet wire) going down to the bass posts, I like the sound better this way. Has anyone else tried this?

 

[TonyBDA]

Quote:

I like the sound better this way.

Compared to what.


You have a single cable, connected to all 3 sets of binding posts...so what?

 

[snickelfritz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DMF Nonsense. Bi-wiring is electrically and topologically identical to mono-wiring. The woofer motor sees the same crossover, and the crossover sees the same amp. There can't be any difference.

Horse-pucky!.

The woofer and tweeter are wired separately when bi-wired.

If the woofer is wired directly to the amplifier and not directly to the internal crossover to the tweeter, the amplifier will see/damp the EMF voltage before it reaches the crossover to the tweeter.


As an illustration, you could run a 24g woofer wire around the Earth fifty times then to the amp, and run a 12g tweeter wire directly to the amp 10' away.

Will the resistance the amplifier sees on the woofer wire be "electrically and topologically identical" to the the tweeter wire? I seriously doubt it; the two drivers are wired separately and isolated from each other by the internal passive network in the speaker, and this setup would therefore not be "electrically and topologically identical" to a single 10' run of 12g wire.

Nor would it even be close, "electrically and topologically" speaking.

LOL


BTW, I'm not advocating bi-wiring; I use single runs of good wire to my speakers.

 

[Tin_Cup]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TonyBDA Compared to what. You have a single cable, connected to all 3 sets of binding posts...so what?

I like this better than Bi-amping, I have a single cable going up to the top binding post (for the mids and highs) then I have jumper cables going from the top binding posts down to the bass binding posts.......I have the jumper cable wire hook up on top of the mids and highs wire

 

[Kevin. W]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DMF Nonsense. Bi-wiring is electrically and topologically identical to mono-wiring. The woofer motor sees the same crossover, and the crossover sees the same amp. There can't be any difference.

How can this be true if once you remove the jumpers between the two sets of binding posts you isolate the crossovers from each other? If I ran a mono-wiring setup to the speaker now only the tweeter or the woofer would be working