Hello jmeyers! If you already have two sets of wires going to your speakers, you have an intereting option. It requires some bravery and will surely void your warranty. It's easy if you have a seperate preamp & power amp. So far, I have been shocked by the poor quality of parts used in the internal crossovers in most speakers. Quality parts can easily cost way over $100 per side and most mfgrs don't use them. So you pay for nice boxes and fine drivers and get poor sound. So forget passive crossovers! Take the grilles off your speakers, loosen the screws and remove the woofer. (Dont forget to put them back later on.) What kind of wire did they use? Thick or thin? Check it with a magnet. Is the wire magnetic? If so, get rid of it. You can buy an electronic two way crossover for $100 or less from miniDSP. Most of us have an "old" stereo amp sitting around; probably less powerful than the one you are now using. Does your current speaker cabinet only have one set of terminals on the back? Open them up and add a pair of terminal to the back. Run new, non ferrous, heavy duty wires from the tweeter to those terminals. Discard the internal crossover. Connect the woofer directly to the original terminals (replace them if the magnet sticks to them) with suitable heavy wires. Twelve guge is heavy enough; (copper or silver of course). Many would point out that it's a good idea to put a protective capacitor in the tweeter's path to protect it in case your amp goes haywire; but your old amp works, doesn't it? And you're a careful person, right? You aways shut off the amp before changing wires, right? So, don't worry. Most folks wouldn't know what size or brand to use anyway. (Mundorf, 20 mfd would be about right). But dont worry, send the high's directly to your old amp (the tweeter amp, getting the output from the electronic crossover's high output terminals). Your current amp feeds the woofer directly, getting its signal from the low output of the electronic crossover. Now, the woofer amp is never troubled by bird whistles or picolos. The tweeter amp is nerver called upon to put out cannon shots; drums punished by over zeaous madmen; or the roar of lions, waterfalls; or electronis aliens (only the overtones). It will probably never need to put out more tnan15 watts. Try it! You will never go back. Enjoy the music!
How does bi-wiring work?
To start, I do bi-wire my main speakers. However, I am somewhat confused about how bi-wiring works given that the speakers have internal crossovers and the signals received by them have the same full frequency range going to both sets of terminals.
I confess that I don't see any difference from single wiring in terms of the speaker's performance. What am I missing?