Bi-wiring questions

E

europop1978

Guest
I recently upgraded my front speakers from Tannoy mx1s to mx3s. So far I've kept using my single QED SA cable to the fronts, thinking that my amp wasn't compatible with biwiring because it only has 2 outputs for each speaker whereas biwirable speakers have 4 inputs. But is it still possible to biwire, and if so how?

Also, if I do biwire, can it be done by buying another equal length of QED SA, or would it be better to pay the extra for a proper biwire cable?

Thanks, Nick.
 
Definitely possible to bi-wire.....all you need to do is to run a separate set of cables from the exisiting terminals to the speaker terminals,all appropriately connected of course.
Whether or not you notice a difference depends on many things,not least the amp and speakers,and of course psychology plays a part.
Some speakers do sound much better when biwired(my own 805's for instance were so much better that when done,my wife asked what I'd done to them,they sounded so much clearer,and she usually never notices),and a lot simply sound no different.
If it's ok cost wise...give it a try.
 
If you do decide to biwire then you will need to remove the bridging bar between the binding posts on the speakers. you could always try just replacing the bridge with a short length of the speaker cable. This is a cheap option as you should get away without needing to buy any more cable, and many people have reported improvements with this.
If you do decide to biwire then you should not need to buy all new cable, just match the new with the same cable as the old.

Mark.
 
Thankyou for your answers. I think then that I will get the same length of QED SA and biwire. My question now is, how do I get both cables connected to the single set of outputs on the amp?
 
Simply twist the 2 sets of '+' & 2 sets of '-' cables together for each speaker and connect to the receiver.

Mark.
 
Thankyou for the help :)

One more thing, what do banana plugs do and can they be used in this case?
 
Possibly!
In the EU it is rarely obvious if your speakers and/or receiver can take banana plugs as the 'powers that be' dictate that the plugs are dangerous as they can be put into power sockets. Therefore the binding posts useally have a plastic cap on the end. If this can be removed and shows a gap to push a plug into then they can be used.
In simple terms what they do is make it easier to plug/unplug the speaker cables as the back of most receivers is very tight on space. Other than that they don't really offer any advantages other than stopping exposed wire from oxadising. To prevent this just make sure the bare wire is pushed all the way into the binding post.

Mark.
 
Thanks again Mark. :)

I'm going to go and get some more speaker cable today. I was reading another thread about biwiring that said you could do it by running the second set of cables from the B speaker outputs on your amp. Would this give better results than merging both cables at the A speaker outputs? I don't think this method would work with movie sound though, because 5.1 output requires you to use A speakers only, and not A+B.
 
Another question, is it worth upgrading my fairly cheap coaxial DVD->amp interconnect to a coaxial in the £30 range?
 
It is really down to wheather YOU can hear a difference or not. In my case a better coax cable did make a big difference over a cheap(ish) optical cable.

As you say on most AV receivers you can not run biwire via speakers A & B as this is just not an option as normally you use either A or B, but not both. On some 7.1 receivers if only useing it as a 5.1 system, you can assign the surround rear speakers to the front L/R channels and therefore use them to biamp your fronts.

Mark.
 
Well, after much frustrated fiddling I managed to biwire my mx3s. It took me a long time to connect the two cable ends to the single amp outputs because if I twisted the two ends together they would not fit in the little hole under the plastic hood. My solution was to put the ends into different sides of the holes, as I've illustrated here (the black lines repesent the metal part of the output):

http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/europop1978/detail?.dir=/a7f4&.dnm=5a71.jpg

Upon testing, I was disappointed to hear a descrease in sound quality. There seems to be a problem with midrange frequencies. Orchestral strings are half drowned out and no longer fill the room when they are supposed to get loud. Also the sound is uneven. Sometimes there will be a noticeable dip in the volume of an instrument or it will shift from one side to the other. Could this be caused by the way I've wired the cable to the amp? For example if the tips of the cable ends are touching the other cable?
 
It shouldnt matter if the tips of the cable are touching as normally you would bind it into one and then connect them into the receiver. I had my B&W 603s bi-wired up until last week. I bought a new amp and decided not to bi-wire and to be honest the sound qulaity to me is just as good. Like MarkE19 says its what sounds good to you that counts.
 

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