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Bi-Wiring, is it still a "thing"?

Minio said:
When I bought my Dynaudio Contours, about 20 years ago, they had only single terminals.
I realised then and there.

Such a brilliant sounding speaker does not require any more cables.
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Amphion do the same. Single binding posts, because they think it is better.
 
Darren L said:
Yes and no, some loudspeaker manufacturers are still using bi-wire terminals on their speakers, some never have and some have reverted to single wire.
I think that the original idea of offering bi-wire terminals was to enable speakers to be bi-amped, so using two stereo power amps & two pairs of speaker cables, one for HF one for LF, some 3way speakers also had tri-amp/wire terminals.
Some cable "manufacturers" did or perhaps still do offer bi-wire cables though not as popular now, a lot them do offer 'jumper' cables, short lengths to replace the provided links.
Some people will argue there's no difference to be heard in either cable type or what connection is used, some will clearly hear a difference.
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Agree , Using JPS biwire the speakers have no crossovers. No idea if done with single speaker cable makes it better or worse I went with my dealers knowledge.
 
I think biwiring may have sounded different only becuase all the extra wire in effect changed the crossover circuit or simply was like the effect of using differnt cables to tweak the sound (if you used different cables - I only ever tried it with the cables I had so were different)?
 
My current set up is bi-wired. Exposure 2010s integrated and power into Neat Motive 1's. Int doing the high freq and the power amp the low. I've also set it up with the integrated as a pre amp and the power amp powering the speakers with jumpers. Cannot hear a single difference in the sound :) All I notice is that the high freq is obviously a lot quieter, making me think is not a bit of a waste of an amp being used just to power it.
 
I've had bi-wired Spendors (S5es) and Harbeths (HLP3-ES2s) in the past. All other things being equal - same amp, same cable but doubled etc- I never could hear any difference. I never tried bi-amping.
 
Mr Pig said:
I remember back in the day Epos saying that they knew bi-wiring was a waste of time but they fitted the terminals as people had been so brain washed into believing they needed them that they wouldn't buy the speakers if they were missing. Or something to that effect. Sounds exactly right.

So, what similar foolish trends are Hi-Fi buyers following today?
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A friend chatted with a Fyne representative last year at Munich hifishow.
When asked why they didn't in generel provide singlewire - the friendly Fyne guy explained marketing reason demands only, he firmly admitted it was not something they liked either.
I think their higher end offerings are singlewire and made in Scotland.

As for crappy links, some people are cheated because these really degrade, hence they believe biwire is the preferred.
 
Dual terminals continue to be offered by speaker manufacturers although there may not be any sound benefits with the additional set of binding posts. They are offered as standard because there is market demand for the dual terminals. There are people who believe that using biwired speaker cables will bring better sound quality.

The Harbeth designer once admitted that the additional set of terminals on several of his creations are there because of marketing reasons.
 
I.D.C. said:
Agree , Using JPS biwire the speakers have no crossovers. No idea if done with single speaker cable makes it better or worse I went with my dealers knowledge.
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There has to be a crossover on the tweeter even if it’s just a cap (1st order), or it’ll blow. This suggests you have no crossover on the driver, which is the case too when single wired. The amp still sees the same thing either way, which is a driver, a capacitor, and a tweeter.

Dealer sold two pairs of speaker cable though. :D
 
I bi-wired back in the day, from day 1 with an Arcam Alpha 5 into Gale 4s.
It's because What HiFi said so. I believed it. Placebo effect?

Later, moved house, and bi-amped, using an Audiolab pre and 2 exposure 2010 power amps, running as monoblocks, into monitor Audio S8.

Big difference IMHO.

All that has gone, bar the speakers. I still bi- amp using a Cyrus 3 (low frequency) a Q power (high frequency and mids).

I can just about say that this is better than the 3 alone.

But then, I'm going deaf so what do I know.
 
AnilS said:
I bi-wired back in the day, from day 1 with an Arcam Alpha 5 into Gale 4s.
It's because What HiFi said so. I believed it. Placebo effect?

Later, moved house, and bi-amped, using an Audiolab pre and 2 exposure 2010 power amps, running as monoblocks, into monitor Audio S8.

Big difference IMHO.

All that has gone, bar the speakers. I still bi- amp using a Cyrus 3 (low frequency) a Q power (high frequency and mids).

I can just about say that this is better than the 3 alone.

But then, I'm going deaf so what do I know.
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This looks like an example of where bi amping would be of benefit. The 2010 is a great amp, I owned a 2010S, the one criticism being ultimate power reserves at more rocking volume.
 
Agree about the 2010.

Lovely for my needs but got greedy and bought 2 Audiolab monoblocks 8000M (sale pending via AVF).

Slightly less musical and fun but huge power reserves and very nice sounding.

Bi-amp definitely has an edge and character.
 
leroyd said:
I am not aware of any sonic benefits, but I understand it was of considerable financial benefit for cable manufacturers
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You are most correct, wire retailers reached deeply into my pockets.

I was chuckling as I was chopping the beautifully heat sealed plugs off to jam the cables into my new amp (non bi-wired) :)

S
 
Surely the question here is, if bi-wiring and bi-amping can make a significant improvement, why do some serious speakers only come with single wire terminals?
 
my Totem Forests come with dual binding posts,i would regard my Signature version as a " serious" pair of loudspeakers.

my amplifier supplies 4 x channels of 200w ,so i use all 4 to bi-wire the connections.

my speaker cable is Chord Epic Supertwin,so one run of cable does the job.

i used to run an Aktiv setup with Linn Kabers that involved 3 amps and a crossover box...all these toroids asnd wiring involved could generate quite a humming chorus ;).
 
Biamping makes real sense with an active crossover. A big muscle amplifier driving the bass and a refined class A driving the tweeter
 
MBL, the manufacturers of my amps and speakers specify bi-wiring and they don’t make cables. The amps are configured with multiple and various output connectors to bi-wire when used in mono or stereo configuration, and the speakers with two sets of inputs not close to each other.

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Based on this I’d say on the benefits of bi-wiring “it depends on your system”
 
Mr Pig said:
I remember back in the day Epos saying that they knew bi-wiring was a waste of time but they fitted the terminals as people had been so brain washed into believing they needed them that they wouldn't buy the speakers if they were missing. Or something to that effect. Sounds exactly right.

So, what similar foolish trends are Hi-Fi buyers following today?
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I know I shouldn’t mention it, but how about expensive cables ?
( Oh no, I’ll probably have started another cable thread ! )
 
I bi wire my speakers as it’s good practice to star earth components in a system, cable is CPC special offer, nothing fancy.
 
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