Here is an oversimplified overview. Many better quality speakers have two inputs (or more). Typically the lower input is for the woofer and the upper is for the midrange and tweeter drivers. In these cases the crossover sections are not electrically connected to each other so individual amplifiers can power the different driver sections. This opens up a number of possibilities such as using a higher powered solid state amp on the woofers and perhaps a vacuum tube amp on the midrange and tweeters section. Using two stereo amplifiers and separate wires to the speaker sections is what is referred to as "bi-amping". Electronic crossovers can be used but are not required since the passive crossovers are still intact inside the speakers. If you choose to use a single amplifier, you could biwire which is simply running two sets of wires to the individual speaker sections and connecting the other ends of the wires to the single amplifier. The reason for using jumpers is simply that you have a single amplifier and a standard set of speaker cables that will only connect to one of the input sections. You use a jumper to connect the two sections together. There are reasons (advantages and disadvantages) for using different configurations. I hope my explanation made sense. Feel free to e-mail if you need any clarification.
Brad
e-mail: [email protected]
Brad
e-mail: [email protected]