If Bi-Wiring is an option, should I choose Bi-wiring over single banana with free jumpers


Hello All!

Newbie here : ) I have a pair of speakers (MartinLogan Motion 40i) that have, according to the website, "dual five-way binding post speaker terminals which allow bi-amping or bi-wiring." As you can see in the top right photo of the speaker terminals in this link, the speakers came with free jumpers (the jumpers look like just a sheet of conductive metal) between the 4 terminals. 

https://www.martinlogan.com/en/product/motion-40i

So when purchasing speaker cables, placing the best quality connection over cost, should I:

1. (Cheapest) Get single banana plugs and use the included free jumpers, or

2. (More costly but will it be WAY better?) Get Bi-wire speaker cables and remove the free jumpers.

3. Get single banana plugs, and find some high quality jumpers to replace the free included jumpers.

If it doesnt matter much to sound quality, it seems option #1 is best as its cheapest. However my goal is to get the best/most efficient connection so i suspect options #2 or #3 might be the way to go? 

Many thanks for any advice!

 

steve_a001

Forget opinions… what does the manufacturer recommend? They’re the ultimate expert for their own products.

I prefer single wiring with jumpers. Follow the recommendation of Merlin's Barry Palkovic, connect the single-wire cable to the speaker's tweeter/HF connections, and use jumpers to the bass/LF connections.

I’ve had both on my Nola Lotus Elites 20 years ago, and they sound better bi-wired. I find the bass frequencies sound clearer when they have their own lead.

I can't say that I’ve found very many speakers that sounded their best with a jumper instead of its own lead. I’m sure they’re out there; I just haven't heard it yet.

@imjerrys 

I prefer single wiring with jumpers. Follow the recommendation of Merlin's Barry Palkovic, connect the single-wire cable to the speaker's tweeter/HF connections, and use jumpers to the bass/LF connections.

This works for me. Honestly, bi-wiring is imagination because the speaker cables are bridged at the amp and speaker end. Just a marketing ploy.

I use Nordost Reference jumpers and they are incredible, can't imagine what the Odin's are like.

Resurrecting this thread having read this one, and the 2024 thread on bi-wiring which had many responses!

This question isn't to open the debate again about the merit of doing this, but get a sanity check on if I've done this correctly.

I have a pair of Energy Veritas 2.8's which are tri-wireable (3 pairs of binding posts on the rear, lows, mids, highs).  I've always had one pair of speaker cables going to the low terminals with high quality jumpers connected to the mids and then the mids to the high binding posts.

My wife asked me to move the equipment rack a year or two ago so I bought the identical speaker wire but in a 15 foot length versus the 10 foot I had previously.  Now I'm back to the original location of my equipment rack and I have two pairs of very nice speaker cables in different lengths.

So I decided I might as well try out bi-wire.

What I did was use the shorter length speaker cables and connected them to the amp binding posts and then over to the low binding posts on the speakers.  Obviously I removed the jumper from the lows to the mids on the speakers.

I connected the longer length speaker wires to the same amp binding posts (a bit of a tight squeeze with spades) and then routed them to the high binding posts on the back of the speakers.  The high binding posts have jumpers going to the mid binding posts on the speakers.

Is this the best configuration to test this out?  I thought the shorter length cables going to the low binding posts on the speakers could mean less resistance so that was my rationale.  Not sure if the 2nd set of speaker cables going to the speaker mid or high binding posts matters.

No, I'm not going to spend more money to tri-wire!  I already have enough speaker cable going out of the amp and across the carpet to the speakers.