Bi-wire 804s

[rav934]

Whats the better approach. Use moderate priced bi-wires (say 2 sets at $500 a piece) or 1 set of $1k cables with jumpers?

[miner]

I have biwired my N804 using a bulk roll of 14 ga/4 conductor (65 strands of OFC/conductor) in-wall certified wire with very good results. This 250' roll cost me <$100. IMO, high-dollar cables are much overrated.

[Karma]

HI miner,
You are not doing yourself fair to seek an answer to your question. I know you don't think that 2X the price = 2X the quality. Cables don't work that way. What you are after are cables that "click" into YOUR system sound. Cost is a factor but clicking is more important.

Are cables worth anything? Here one way to find out. Listen carefully to your dealers standard low price cables. Use equipment that matches yours. Take your own into the store if necessary. Be sure to use the same speakers as yours. This usually means listening at a dealer that sells your brand and model. Speakers can be hard to get into the car. Take your own well known recordings. Use your own interconnects. They can change what you hear. The idea is to make the cables the only new part of your system. If you can borrow the cables and do this at home, so much the better.

Once you have a good handle on the sound, ask your dealer to hook up your speakers using his most expensive cables. Do you hear a difference? Don't be interested in good or bad; just listen for differences.

Do hear differences? If you do then try to describe what you are hearing. Continue until you can. Finally, try to determine if the differences are better or worse than the stock cable. If you hear an improvement you now have a reference. You can then proceed to audition cables of intermediate cost.

You may be surprised to find that the best sounding cables for YOUR system are not the most expensive. They just click and that's all that counts.

Sparky

[mikej]

I have my 603's and center bi-wired with decent bi-wire that was $5 a foot from my dealer and they sound great!

[jim777]

I'd go for 1 set at 500$

The famous biwire debate.. this could go on forever!

Did some people actually A/B listen to biwiring vs single-wiring?

[rav934]

I just received two sets of Acoustic Zen speaker cables. Set#1 is 8ft Satori (not bi-wired) with jumpers. Set#2 is 8 ft Satori Shutgun (bi-wired). I will be evaluating both sets with the following components.

Musical Fidelity A5 integrated amp and A5 Cd player.

B&W 804s speakers.

Look for my report.