2. cables
  3. 1171660496

Bi-amping with Audioquest cables

Owners of Audioquest hyperlitz cables will know that these cables are made up of multi-strand wires, which are individually insulated. This makes the job of bi-wiring more effective and quite straight-forward. In spite of this, Audioquest have told me that they should not be used for bi-amping (ie two pairs of bass and treble wires at both speaker and Amp ends,)but instead, I should use TWO pairs of cables. Nevertheless, before I was advised of this, I had in fact configured a single pair of their Indigo cables into a a bi-amp set up and still use them like this to this day with good effect. I have now managed to pick up a pair of their Moonlight cables which are currently single wired and am considering re-wiring them the same as the Indigo's. Does anyone know why I shouldn't be doing this? Could this cause problems with Impedence?(I have emailed Audioquest but to date not had a reply).
lt346mp
unclejeff
1,313 posts
 
I would not be too worried. I would think that the Audioquest people design their cables to be used one way and they can't imagine someone wanting to alter their design.

They might think of it like chilling a good bottle of Cabernet in the icebox before serving, but this is nevertheless your choice.
lt346mp OP
12 posts
 
Thanks for the reply Unclejeff. Are there any other 'goners out there bi-amping with a single pair of cables?
davemitchell
253 posts
 
Bi-amping or Bi-wiring within a single Audioquest cable will work fine. The reason it is not recommended has more to do with the sonic disadvantage of having deep bass information traveling in close proximity to more delicate high frequencies. The magnetic field created by the bass will modulate and distort the high frequencies to some extent.

This is the reason that true bi-wiring involves two physically separate pairs of cables. What you are doing is known as single bi-wiring (or single wire bi-amping). Dividing up the conductors internally within a single pair of cables is commonly done, just not ideal.
More to discover