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Bi-wiring and Bi-amping for Dummies (Well, One dummy amyways)

Thanks to fellow list member here I’ve learned recently some about my new equipment. Now about hooking it all up.....

Most of the new gear is pretty simple but there’s a couple of new twists I have no experience with. Bi-wiring and bi-amping.

Bi-wiring. I purchased a pair of Cambridge Audio Edge M monoblocks and a pair of

KEF R11 Meta speakers. The speakers will take normal wiring or bi-wiring  I now understand. I was lucky enough to contact Morrow Audio before they shipped out my new SP6 speaker cables and have the speaker ends changed to bi-wiring. 

The amplifier cable ends will have the normal two connectors while the speaker ends will now have 4. Pretty straightforward or am I missing something?

Bi-amping. Well, this will take another pair of monoblocks. That’s not in this year’s budget but maybe next year if it offers that much improvement. Does it add much improvement? Even when using monoblocks? Will it make the cables I just ordered obsolete? Will I need additional cables? Anything else I need to know? 

I’m sure bi-wiring and bi-amping are covered in the forums elsewhere but I’m trying to be specific for the brands of equipment I purchased. 

Your polite comments and opinions are valued, thank you. 

toddsyr
toddsyr's avatar
toddsyr OP
231 posts
 

@lordmelton I did buy the most expensive speaker cables I was willing to pay for. Morrow Audio SP6 cables. What are the "jumpers" for? Like I said, I have never had speakers with this capability before. As for the extra cost of the cables being adapted for bi-wiring, it only adds $150 to a pair of cables that retail for over $4200. That's not bad in my book. 

@ghdprentice Your logic makes total sense but I selected my monoblocks not for just their price,but their sound and compatibility with my other components as well. The comparison you speak of would be great to hear about. 

gkelly's avatar
gkelly
1,040 posts
 

Back in the day when they were producing 100 W amps and those were the monsters of the day. While the low end was wild the treble had something to be desired. They found that if you put a tube amplifier on the high frequencies the sound would be more enjoyable and energetic. Today’s modern amplifiers have solved a lot of problems so bi-amping is not necessary in today’s systems. 
https://youtu.be/ngIrFI6P6zg?si=FiQHlMDKdqVXgN2Y

hope this helps

toddsyr's avatar
toddsyr OP
231 posts
 

@gkelly It does help, a LOT! Another $6500 is a lot of money to spend for little to no improvement. What are your thoughts on bi-wiring? Thank you for the post. 

Post removed 
knotscott's avatar
knotscott
1,391 posts
 

Bi-amping has worked well for me, but there are a lot of variables in play that  my system specifically benefitted from.  It’s not an absolute that bi-amping will or won’t be an improvement.  It depends on many factors, including details of the system, and how the bi-amping is configured.  There are a lot of ways to approach bi-amping, with pros and cons for each....there’s passive and active bi-amping, horizontal and vertical bi-amping, or a hybrid of those.    

I’m bi-amping with tube amps and a solid state amp in a horizontal active and passive hybrid arrangement.  There’s an active low pass crossover and solid state amp on the woofers, and an inline high pass filter and tube amps to the midbass and tweeter.  It’s made a significant improvement in my case, but the speakers have individual inputs for each driver and are very conducive to this type of setup. The crossover frequencies are another variable that worked in my favor.  Every system and situation is unique, so the bi-amping approach needs be logical for your circumstances.     

Many claim bi-wiring makes no difference, but some claim they do.  If you already have the wire, there's nothing to lose, so try it and see.  

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