bi-wire non bi wire speakers

[Jeff]

You may be thinking, WHAT....WHY? There's a reason for my madness

My speaker cable has 4 solid core conductors per cable. There are several
different gauges per cable. I have notice better sound if I run one entire cable to the positive and one to the negative (8 solid core strands).

The cables are not terminated. I'm having a problem in securely fastening
these cables to my amp. I'm able to get a good fit with the large gauge
stand but the small gauge strand isn't nearly as tight. This also applies when
twisting two together and fastening all 4 strand to one post (two strands
on either side of the post).

I have never read anywhere where using both positive connections on an amp connected to a single post on a speaker is bad for either the speaker
or the amp.

If it's a bad thing can anyone tell me why? Or does anyone currently do this?

Thanks

[whoaru99]

I presume you are referring to the A/B speaker posts on you amp? If so, it's most likely OK. If there are not A/B speaker posts, then connecting two positives together sounds like a bad thing.

[Jeff]

Bi-wire amps have 4 binding posts per channel. Two positive, two negative.
They're intented run bi-wire speakers. One pair of amp posts run to the woofers the other to the mids and tweeters.

My application would be for a two channel amp. There is no A/B speaker
posts. Only right and left channel.

Thanks

[whoaru99]

My thought are that if the amp terminals are not labeled with anything other than left +/- and right +/- it is safe to do what you are thinking. If there were any difference i.e. highs/lows had to be connected to certain pair of terminals, they would be labeled as such and then you might have a problem doing it.

[brucek]

Bi-wire amps have 4 binding posts per channel. Two positive, two negative.

No. Amplifiers have two binding posts. One positive and one negative for each channel.

Speakers that are capable of being bi-wired have 4 binding posts that can be strapped to two and unstrapped to four.

If you wish to bi-wire, the speaker cable has two connectors on one end (that connect to the amplifier) and four connectors on the other end (that connects to the speakers).

See this image of a set of bi-wire cables.



.
.

The cables are not terminated

Terminate them....bare wire is a big hassle. 8O

brucek

[Jeff]

burcek, thanks for the reply. Yes you are correct, some speaker can be
bi wired, like my B&W N802. However, I have two amps which are true biwire amps ( 4 binding posts per channel)

I've attached a couple photos to show you what I mean. The first pic is the back of a Proceed Amp 3. The second is the rear of an Rotel RB-1080.

Thanks

[brucek]

Yes, but these extra posts are simply a matter of convenience for those who wish to have another spot to hook onto the output terminal. The extra post has no other attributes associated with it. It is a dead short connection to its companion post.

An amplifier only has a single positive and a single negative output per channel.

I'm afraid I'm confused by what your question here is?

brucek

[Jeff]

I see what your saying. Yes, they're only a convenience. There is only two TRUE outputs per channel. The other is like a slave output. Me dealer, when posed with this question, didn't feel confident when providing an answer. Thus, his final thought was to take the side of caution.

I don't really have any plans to terminate the wire which I'm using for my
center speaker. Once I upgrade to the B&W HTM1 I will get new a cable which is terminated in a biwire fashion.

Getting back to my original question. I'm now under the impression there
is NO issue in using all 4 binding post to wire my non biwire speaker. This
is allowing me to have a tight fit for all conductors in my cable, which is
what I'm looking for.

Thanks

[Patt]

Getting back to my original question. I'm now under the impression there is NO issue in using all 4 binding post to wire my non biwire speaker. This is allowing me to have a tight fit for all conductors in my cable, which is what I'm looking for.

Seem's like a very serious issue.

If I'm understanding this correctly there is no way to safely hook up (4) wires at the amp end, and (2) wires at the speaker end with only (2) speaker binding posts without seeing the 4th of July.

Sounds like you just want to use bi-wire in a non bi-wire application. Maybe I am misunderstanding and someone will jump in here and straighten me out.

[whoaru99]

Pat,

What I'm saying and what brucek has said in a much better way is that the double set of binding posts per channel (on the amp) are merely for convenience for those that want to biwire. Electrically, there is no difference between the pairs of + terminals or - terminals respective to each channel.

So, since the terminals are electrically the same at the amp, there is no problem connecting the biwire cables together at the speaker.

[Patt]

If you guy's say so.

Must be one of those "have to see it to believe it thing's", for me.

[Jeff]

Patt, sorry no fourth of July. Diana Krull Live in Montreal sounds incredible!!
For a test I turned off all other speakers and just used the center channel, with and without the subwoofer. I can ask no more of this speaker.

Since I've been able to tighten down all cable strands, the upper midrange
has greater balance. That was likely one of the strands which were loose.

[Patt]

Goood,

I'll have to remember that........E N J O Y!

Last time I touched two hot ++ wires together I did a little welding, must not be the same thing.