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For a budget - True bi-wire or bi-wire?

Simple question. I have a speaker with four binding posts and monoblocks with four binding posts(for each channel). If I have a given budget for cables (say $1000), am I better off buying two pairs of identical $500 cables and do a true bi-wire, or buy a $1000 single pair of a typical bi-wired cable (i.e. no separate cable runs, but a biwire that is simply split at the speaker end)?. This is not about any particular calbe I have in mind. It bold down to how does the improvement I get from more expensive cable compare to improvement trough true bi-wire
edorr

Showing 2 responses by kijanki

kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,394 posts
 
You have four options:

- More expensive single cable with jumpers on speaker side
- single biwired cable
- shotgun cable (two runs joined at amp's side)
- two separate runs.

Shotgun might be better than two separate runs because it might be taylored for particular speakers (woofer and tweeter) and is most likely better than internally biwired cable. Is it better than single run of more expensive cable? It depends on speaker itself. Some speakers sound much better biwired while others sound the same. Remember that single cable will require quality jumpers for speaker to replace stock brackets.

Two separate runs would allow you to sell one if you buy speakers with just one set of posts (non-biwire) or you don't hear any difference.
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,394 posts
 
Al - don't forget about crossover components. Woofer is most likely in series with inductor that has resistance in order of 0.08ohm limiting damping factor to about 100. Icepower class D amps have DF=4000 at low frequencies - an overkill.
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