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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
lugsytl47
20 posts
 

@knowscott This is why I recently sold all my gear and went with active DSP speakers. Each driver gets its own amp, no wiring, just XLR in from source. Simplicity.

 

dekay's avatar
dekay
6,209 posts
 

Thanks, that's a good pic and now I see that they are knobs (interesting speakers that I was not aware of prior to your post)...

https://australiahifi.com.au/products/kef-r11-meta-floorstanding-speakers

 

DeKay

ditusa's avatar
ditusa
2,446 posts
 

@lugsytl47 Wrote:

Andrew Jones has stated in interviews there is no benefit to bi-wiring. He only added the option to his speakers because Dealers stated speakers without bi-wiring option weren’t selling after some magazine articles started appearing touting the sonic benefits.

True! See the video I posted above.smiley

Mike

kennyc
2,951 posts
 

Bi-wiring: no.

Bi-amp: depends on the speaker. Generally I’m not interested in bi-amped speakers mainly because of the increased cost and complexity.  

lordmelton's avatar
lordmelton
1,181 posts
 

@toddsyr Apologies for my late reply but jumpers normally replace the pressed steel or alloy jumpers which come with new speakers to enable you to single wire out of the box. Replacing the jumpers with quality usually provides a significant upgrade in sound.

The only use for bi-wiring is to replace the jumpers,  otherwise bi-wiring has zero benefit, because a shotgun cable is the same wire and amps with double binding posts are joined inside.

I am speaking to you from personal experience.

Consider decent power cables and ICs and give your system time to burn in. Speaker placement in very important too. Happy  Listening . 

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