Bi-Wiring & Bi-Amping Explained | What is it? How do you do it? Is it worth it? Let's talk about it!
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- Опубліковано 2 лип 2024
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Part of the thrill of being an audio enthusiast is the never-ending journey for improved sound. Once you catch the “bug” and put together a decent home audio system or home theater system, the next step is to tweak and experiment.
If you’re at this point, you may have come across the terms “bi-wiring” and “bi-amping”. Let’s talk about what each of these means and how they may help to improve the sound of your audio system.
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Love the video. Super duper helpful. Keeping putting out this type of video. Many of us appreciate it more than you know.
Thanks so much! We are glad you enjoyed it
Great and simple explanation. The benefits will be base on what people feel and hear in their system. This opens up other options for everyone to either explore or consider.
Thanks for sharing, glad you liked it
Great info here. Really appreciate the info in this video. Subscribed. Keep em coming
Glad you liked it! Thanks
I've tried both bi-wiring and bi-amping countless times to determine what I liked more. Bi-amping is certainly the more noticeable upgrade for the average user, however, a great set of speaker cables and a properly calibrated receiver or processor makes a big difference on the performance of bi-wiring (my current setup). I haven't turned back since. Great video!
Thanks for sharing!
Expensive speaker cable don't make any measurable differences...
They are the most known snake oil of the industry.
Expensive DAC being the next.
@Chris Doehla bi-wiring is just that, two sets of wires. The amplification remains the same, one left channel, one right. Bi-amping goes a step further with one channel for each driver. In both scenarios the crossover is passive and there are generally incremental improvements with these two steps.
The largest step is to go fully active, again one amplifier channel per driver, but now with a powered or active crossover between the preamp and the power amps. By far the largest improvement due to the removal of the passive crossover and the loss and phase issues it causes.
@@hypnoz7871 The only upgrades in Cables that are worth the Money are:
1. Pure Oxygen Free Copper or Tinned Pure Oxygen Free Copper (Aluminum Wire is only a good substitute for Power Wire in Mobile Audio scenarios if you are on a budget and you could for example instead of 4GA Copper you could buy 1/0 Aluminum…
2. The Gauge of the Wire 16ga through as thick as 8ga you don’t need anything thicker than 8ga. I don’t care what you are running.
3. Terminals. I think it’s worth it to get Banana Terminals or Spades (on the Speaker Side) don’t bother getting anything other than Gold. Don’t waste your Money on Platinum, Rhodium, etc..
4. Braided Wire Loom but only if you are going to see any of the Cables. It’s nice to have professional looking Cables. Not really necessary otherwise though. Unless you are going to run them through the Walls, then make sure you are buying Shielded Speaker Wire that is made for that usually labeled like CL3 Rated / UL listed.
I have 8Ga Bi-Amp Tinned OFC with Gold Banana Plug Terminals including Wire Pants and Braided Loom. (8Ga Knukonceptz Krux Bi-Amp Kable)
placebo effect
Excellent, clear, and comprehensive explanation. Thanks.
Glad it was helpful!
I bi-wired a pairs of Linn Kabers form a Linn amp. I heard a big change, but more telling was my very non-audiophile friend. His jaw dropped over the difference. The system sounded great before, but after there was just so much more. More soundstage, more upper and lower extension, more rhythm. If you have the ability to try it, and you have the extra cables, try it! You have nothing to lose and possibly tons to gain!
Thanks for sharing. The Kaber was a great speaker. It was also one of the few speakers you could actively bi amp.
Do u notice any difference? I use Bose and Wilson Audio, never Bi-amped. Should try it.
Very detailed information. Thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
Very helpful as always!
Glad you think so!
I like active and run network mode in my vehicles. It really makes a difference when you have good components.
Yes many car audio systems are fully active. Thanks for watching
Great explanation of the differences between them.
Glad you liked it. Thanks for watching
EXCELENTE TRABAJO
MUCHAS GRACIAS
UN FUERTE ABRAZO DESDE SANTIAGO DE CHILE
Thank you for watching!
Nice video, thanks!! 👍🏼
No problem 👍
Over my head I like to learn more thanks for sharing
You can always check out our article at the link in the description to learn more!
Great video, thank you :)
Thanks so much!
Excellent explanation.
Glad you think so!
Good explanation!
Glad it was helpful!
This is from Cambridge Audio:
"At Cambridge Audio all of our modern speakers do not have the capacity to be bi-wired. We always want to offer our customers the best possible components in our products, rather than adding an extra set of terminals to the speakers we would rather invest in a better crossover. This philosophy also extends to our views on wiring. Rather than spending your hard earned cash on two sets of mediocre wires that can be bi-wired into a speaker, why not single wire using some really great speaker cable? This is also more space effective as you don’t get the tangling mess of cables at the back of your hi-fi set up which can often come with bi-wiring.
There is a lot of discussion around this topic; in fact you’ll find yourself a little lost in a sea of online forums about it! Some believe that bi-wiring is purely a marketing ploy, often referred to as ‘buy wiring’, whilst others believe it makes a noticeable impact particularly to middle range sound. We made the decision not to build our speakers with a bi-wiring option so we can focus on making the components inside of our products the best they can be."
Thanks for sharing! It is definitely a hot topic of debate. As long as you enjoy the sound, then that's all that matters!
This philosophy makes the most sense, though I didn't even know Cambridge made speakers. There are plenty of very high quality speakers that only have a single pair of terminals. The only reason most hifi brands have two pairs is because they know many of their customers believe that it will sound better when bi-wiring/amping.
Also amplifier takes only 2 connections and speaker has 4 connections. I don't understood how frequencies separate out in middle of wires?
Excellent explanation
Glad it was helpful!
Bi-amping works great and provides a big improvement to the soundstage. Bi-wiring is identical to straight wiring, at least on a schematic and I have never noticed a difference.
Thanks for sharing. We think active biamping where you totally eliminate the passive crossover offers huge improvements. Its just hard to find as an option on most speakers.
@@AudioAdvice Yes, this setup is hard to find, and I was totally frustrated and went forward with building my own speakers. Two separate crossovers (High/Mid/woofer and Subwoofer). They are powered by two 1968 McIntosh MC250 (fully restored) and two preamps coming off of my mixer board. One amp feeds the upper crossovers and the other feeds the lower crossovers. The speakers are modeled after the Troels Gravesen CNO-4.
@@AudioAdvice Is it easy to remove the passive crossover in the speaker?
@@derekviveiros yes, just unsolder it from the terminals
The key proviso is "at least on a schematic", and it's sensible of you to put in that caveat. A schematic is a conceptual circuit, and there's a lot of information detail that a basic one doesn't convey. Proper circuit analysis reveals bi-wiring and single wire connection are not identical, but the differences in operation are small and likely to be overpowered by other factors. It's not surprising that people have tried bi-wiring and not heard a difference, and it's not surprising that some are sure they do detect a difference, since the possibility can't rightly be excluded.
Very good explanation. Thanks for the video!
Glad it was helpful!
I just got Sony STR-AN1000 AVR and decided to bi-wire the front Klipsch speakers using the front and surround back/bi plugs (removing the jumper plates from the speakers). The difference was night and day, more pronounced cymbals and sweeter sound in general. I did run the calibration both times.
Thanks for sharing!
I am currently running Klipsch THX650 (thx6000) front 3. I'm using the Marantz sr8015 on pre amp mode to the Sunfire TGA7400 amplifier.
1. I used QED Silver anniversary in shotgun style and made jumpers from Chord odyssey. Actually sounds good. Sounds heavy and solid with great high frequency.
2. I then experimented with bi wire. Simply taking apart the shotgunned cable and used it as bi wire. It sounded OK but I preferred the shotgun cable. This sounded like I connected an eq and boosted 1khz onwards. Clean but fatiguing.
3. Bi Amp. The sunfire has 2 sets of binding post for front left and right (current and Voltage) So I used Current outputs for tweeters and I bi amped to surround back channels to use those for the bass drivers. The sound quality is absolutely fantastic. When listening to music and movies, they are loud (when they need to be!) But controlled. I've limited the volume to -15db max!
Thanks for sharing. We wonder what would happen with two sets of the shotgun style :)
i have harman kardon avr745 and hk signature series 2.1 5 channel poweramp. i dunno if i could use my pre’s zone2 channels for bi amping but used a Y cable to double up my stereo channels and hooked up to poweramp separately . the difference is huge! i am using bw 683 tower speakers . Thanks for the video
Thanks for sharing, moving up to the separate power amp probably made the difference you are hearing.
I have some polk s60 towers and they sound super great bi wired wouldn't even try hooking them up any other way, yup bi wiring is definitely the way to go
Thanks for sharing
Nice explanation on some points. Good explanation of multi-amping. Getting away from the x-over in the speaker cab yields good results. In my experience, I've not seen that wires and amps need to be identical. I've tri-amped using solid state and vacuum tube amps (Onkyo S/S, Fisher and TenTec tubies, NAD S/S, and others I've forgotten over the past 40 years of playing these games). Currently drive a pair of JLB4411 with the x-over removed, tri-amping with S/S amps. Reinforced with Bose 901s for midrange driven with a separate amp, getting only the mid range from the TDM active x-overs (no highs, no lows...must be Bose) The ratio of wavelengths (audio vs electrical) are so far apart the the time delay introduced by extra wire length would be undetectable, and barely measurable even with the right test equipment. Wires: I've mixed and matched, even played with 25 conductor ribbon cable wired even/odd to approximate speaker impedance. I found no difference between zip cord, ribbon cable, individual stranded, and solid core wire. Never found a distinguishable difference in wires. This isn't RF. In my opinion, the money is best spent on good speaker motors and concert tickets.
Thanks for sharing, yes concerts are fun!
I think I want to bi-wire my RP600M bookshelfs and my Anthem MCA 225 Gen 2. That's a nice Saturday project. Later in the year some Cornwalls will do the trick!
Great idea! Have fun!
Very interested in learning how to bi-wire/bi-amp my system.
Glad it was helpful
Electrically in bi-wiring you just move the jumper from the LS itself to the amp end - so there is no difference other than the wire's resistance reduces, which can be achieved by getting a thicker cable in the first place. therefore you can in principle bi-wire all loudspeakers by running a double cable and connect to the same connectors. Passive bi-amping may have pros but surely cons. I used to bi-amp but have left this and bridged my amp instead. Since the wires were already there are bi-wired just for the looks.
Yes, it is a very debatable subject. Thanks for watching
I bi-amped tri-wired with Wireworld Eclipse Silver - best move ever.
Thanks for sharing!
Well presented. Amp and speakers are in separate rooms routed through basement. To ease bi-wiring JBLs' installation, am running a 1 into 2 setup (or 2 into 4 if you prefer): split single + and - leads from amp into double at speakers. I assume it has the same effect as commercial bi-wires. Am I mistaken? Thank you.
Sounds like it. Feel free to call or chat with our experts at audioadvice.com and they can always run through your options to be sure you have it set up the best!
Bi-wiring has worked for me on all my systems. In fact, it was so effective on my Monitor Audio GR20s, when I replaced the crossovers with new high quality components, I added a third set of binding posts so I could tri-wire them. Brilliant results all round.
Thanks for sharing, Mark!
Hi end industry should make 3-way active systems the norm. Only company offering such a solution I know about it Linn. It either comes from ignorance or laziness.
I just bought the Crown XLS1002 Two-channel amp. they have a feature built into the amp called Y Mode. (you simply run one RCA cable from your subwoofer output on your receiver to one channel on the Crown) it's a built-in feature. and it works great, it is so powerful. you can easily drive four 8-inch 2-ohm DVC. not even using bridge mode. works great. if you know how to wire it correctly.
Thanks for sharing. If your Crown has an Ethernet connection you can download their free Hi Q Net software and do a whole lot more.
@@AudioAdvice I don't think mine has an ethernet connection. I must say. this is my first D-class amp. I'm very impressed with its capabilities. I will look into the software. thanks a bunch.
Great explanation 👍👍👍👍👍🔌🔌🔌🔌🔌🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵
Glad you liked it! Thanks so much for watching and commenting!
Great explanation! Bi-wiring is definitely worth it if your speakers allow for it.
Very true!
Bi wiring is a waste of effort and money.
All speakers allow bi-wiring. They even allow quad-wiring.
Great video. When bi-amping, does speaker impedance change? I would expect a hard to drive 3ohm speaker's impedance will increase with the bi-amping?
Thank you, it should be similar, but we have actually not measured the individual drivers to see
First time viewer here. Great video, informative and perfect length for the topic.
My current avr is a Yamaha rx-a2a, it has bi-amp capabilities and I do notice some separation improvements.
What is your opinion, is bi-amping technically running 4 channels instead of 2 during 2.1 listening?
My main concern is the lower level avr’s, advertise their power ratings with two channels ran, and the power is supposedly dramatically reduced when running multiple channels.
Thank you
Thank you! On some AVRs you are right. If that were the case and you try biamping you should probably connect the bass driver to the main left and right and the treble to the other channels then try the other way to see if you hear a difference. Thanks for sharing what you experienced
@@AudioAdvice did I win a giveaway?
I received a email about it.
Thank you
@@WardoUSA Thank you for letting us know. We have been reporting these to You Tube. It seems that someone is impersonating us.
Just saw this video and it gave me some questions. My now old THX Pioneer receiver I went in the menu and looked at Surr Back System, here I have the alternative to Front Bi-Amp.
For years my front speakers is Bi-Wire since I was under the impression that you MUST have two recivers to Bi-Amp your speakers.
But did I understand it correctly that my reciver have a adjustment that let me Bi-Amp the front speakers whitout using two separate recivers?
Thanks for the video, well done. I am considering bi-wiring my center channel with a powered sub to handle the lower frequencies and using my existing amp to power the center for the higher frequencies. The only way I can think of how to do this would be to run a Y-cable connector from my pre-amp center, with one Y going to my amp [as per usual] and the other Y running off to my powered sub. Am i correct in this thinking? If so, with the single RCA going to the sub in this instance be plugged into the LFE, or should I Y connect that signal to the sub's L & R input? Thanks, hope my description makes sense. For the record, I have recently purchased two SVS PB-3000 from Audio Advice and those will be my primary subs.
That could work, it makes sense what you are trying to do. But you need to deal with a way to cross it over. If you tell the processor to cross over your center channel, it will not send any low frequencies to the sub. If you tell your processor the speaker is full range, you are not getting the benefit of taking the bass out of the center speaker. A better way to go would be to tell the processor the signal is full range, run an audio cable from the processor to the subwoofer input, use the internal crossover in the subwoofer, then run an audio cable from the subwoofer audio out back to your power amp for the center channel. Hope this helps and we appreciate your support!
This is. a year ago but this won't work. I understand your wanting to bi wire to the tweeter of the speaker and then not the woofer and instead use your sub as the woofer. Problem is that the woofer is also likely carrying out mid frequency duties as well. So your cutting off your speakers mids and only having highs from tweeter and lows subwoofer. Subwoofer only handles below 120 hz. Your left with a big gap in frequency coverage and it will sound awful.
Great review, what size gauge are those speaker wires please?? I have the same aurora speaker
Nice! 14 Gauge. You can find them here: www.audioadvice.com/audioquest-single-rocket-33-speaker-cables
I had the Audioquest bi wire CV4 it was decent. Then upgraded to way better DH labs speaker cables which make Audioquest sound like AM radio.
AM radio... not a serious comment
wow u are talking about the 600 dollar audioquest cables? i could just dream of that. crazy. thats more then my whole setup
You need to be a millionaire to buy DH Labs high end cables US $8500.00 for a 15' cable? Yeah...Nah...
My Audiolab 8000 system, though a little old now is Bi-amped and Bi-wired, that is 4X mono block power amps, one for each speaker driver. I have found that this provides the best clarity and sound stage. At the time, I had money to burn! this was about 25 years ago and with high quality cables and interconects cost a small fortune but it has served me well
Very nice!
Go active!
I. personally, found bi-amping to be totally worth the effort and expenses.
Was using a very old, by now, Cyrus integrated amp, a Cyrus 3i (2x 60 W) plus afterburner, as in a PSX-R, plus a Cyrus Smart Power power amp, plus after burner, as before, to fire Mission 750 floor standers, 2-way, 2 connectors, to then find the improvement to be absolutely *massive*. Especially so, when using the 2x70W Smart Power (in stereo mode, could have used that in mono, if I had happened to have two of them, giving 115 W each, with the PSX-Ra) to drive the tweeters, instead of the 2 woofers/squeakers sitting both below and above the tweeters, at equal distances. What I did not try out was using the stronger Smart Power, being a dedicated power amp, to power both sets of drivers, bi-wiring or not.
What I did was using a twisted multi-stranded "Black and White" cable (which Cyrus are recommending against, not he brand, but the construction in general, I now will be threading a big diameter hose of low electroconductivity Teflon hose through their stranding, to drive the woofers, and a set of equal length very low gauge multi-stranded silvered cable to drive the tweeters, might happen to act as an "equalizer" of sorts. Sounded better, to my ears, as far as resolution for male/female vocals went, both The Cyrus system and the Mission speakers being very "polite" and "mellow" to start with.
Any comment or recommendations on that? Would be pleased hearing from you.
We appreciate you sharing your experience. That must have been an interesting wiring diagram. We can't figure where the old integrated comes in as the 3i would do one set of drivers with its preouts feeding the Smart power for the other.
@@AudioAdvice Wiring was hardly more interesting than connecting the pre-outs to the power amp via RCA. What I am, by now, am putting it down to is what Paul McGowan from PS-Audio says, i.e. back in the 90ies some amps where better at certain frequency ranges than others, so where the cables (those would be from 2000+), which now can more or less run the whole spectrum. As I said, it never occurred to me to let the 3i just be a pre-amp and have the Smart Power do the work, no bi-wiring, not nothing. Will have to try, and put a thick hollow Teflon hose through the Black and Whites, as recommended by Danny from GR research, assuming stuff is still working, been holed up in Thailand for the last 10y. Keep up the got work, solid info. 👌
That is how someone should explain something. defiantly a plus. thank you
Thanks very much, we really appreciate it.
I own a pair of the incredible Aerial Acoustics 7T’s and Musical Fidelity mono amps that have 2 sets of speaker terminals. I bi wire and notice an improvement in imaging and bass control
Thanks for sharing! We love the Aerial 7T!!
How far back should the bi-wired cables be connected? Is it ok to split the connection at the wall plate and then run separate wires to the speaker? Or should be wire be separated closer to the amp/AVR?
They should be separated at the AVR. Thanks for watching
There was a lot of important information left out of the video. Starting with biwiring, there are 2 ways to do it. An internal biwire is when regular speaker cables are used, and the conductors are split up at the speaker end of the cable. Internal biwiring typically yields small to no audible differences. External biwiring is when you use 2 completely separate runs of speaker cables. You also need to keep the 2 runs of cables separated from each other by a few inches. The explanation as to how it works isn't quite right. Low frequencies don't go back down the speaker cables. What really happens is the cable carrying the low frequencies creates a field around the cable, and if the cable that carries the high frequencies gets to close, they can be effected by that field. Also, not all xovers are made the same way. In order for biwiring to work properly, the xover has to be designed with biwiring in mind. Most speakers are not, so its rare you'll ever hear any sizeable benefits from biwiring. The difference is usually very small, and you're better off investing in something that will make a bigger difference. However, when biwiring is done properly, it does make a substantial difference. But this is not the norm, so don't do it unless you can try the cables first to see what kind of differences you hear, if any.
This is a direct quote from the person who invented the concept of biwiring. Here's a link to the entire article. www.vandersteen.com/support/faqs
"So we looked at the speaker wires. With two amplifiers, bi-amplification used two sets of speaker cables so we experimented with doubling-up the speaker wires and with larger wire. Neither duplicated the bi-amplification improvements. Then we considered that in a bi-amplified system, one set of wires carries the low-frequencies and the other set of wires carries the high-frequencies. We modified a speaker's crossovers to accept two sets of cables and present different load characteristics to each set so that the low-frequencies would be carried by one set of wires and the high-frequencies by the other set of wires. Finally we heard the sonic improvements of bi-amplification with a single amplifier.
Additional experiments with a Hall Effect probe revealed that high-current bass frequencies created a measurable field around the wires that expanded and collapsed with the signal. We believe that this dynamic field modulates the smaller signals, especially the very low level treble frequencies. With the high-current signal (Bass) separated from the low-current signal (Treble) this small signal modulation was eliminated as long as the cables were separated by at least an inch or two. (To keep the treble cable out of the field surrounding the bass cable.)
With biamping, you need to know what you're doing or you can waste a lot of money. There are 2 ways to biamp, horizontal and vertical. In the video, you showed an example of horizontal biamping. This almost always a bad idea, and the most common. You have one amp driving the mids/highs, and the other amp drives the lows. You run into 2 problems with this method. Unless you are extremely lucky, there's going to be a volume difference between both amps. That's why an active xover is needed. There's no other way to match the levels. Also, there's usually sound quality issues. The sound of an amp changes the harder you push it. So, even if you have 2 identical amps, the amp driving the bass frequencies will be working much harder than the one driving the highs. Sonically, it turns them into 2 different amps.
Vertical biamping gets around the issues with horizontal biamping. To do it, you must have 2 identical, stereo amps. The left channel signal goes into both inputs on one of the amps. Same thing for the right channel. Each amp drives the entire speaker. There's no volume issues, and each amp is doing the same amount of work. Going this route should make a noticeable difference, but there's no guarantee that 2 of the same amps will sound better than one higher quality amp for twice the price. It may, but each situation is different.
Thanks for your comments, we know Richard very well and remember the day he called us about bi-wiring. On the passive bi-amping, we did state you MUST use identical power amps. Bi-wiring is definitely an interesting topic of debate. AudioQuest- whose cables Vandersteen used back then, believes its the back feed. Both possibilities make sense. As with anything where you are after improvements, the proof is in the listening.
@@AudioAdvice "On the passive bi-amping, we did state you MUST use identical power amps. "
Read my post again, or you can call Richard for his input on the matter. Either way, we're both going to tell you the same thing. In your video, you do show 2 identical stereo amps used to biamp a pair of speakers. However, what you showed is an example of horizontal biamping. Having 2 identical amps for passive horizontal biamping, is almost never going to work properly. Electrically, they almost always become 2 different amps and you'll still need an active xover to fix the problems you encounter. If you read my post, I specifically stated vertical biamping is the correct way to do a passive biamp with 2 identical amps amps. You did not go over this method in your video.
"Bi-wiring is definitely an interesting topic of debate. AudioQuest- whose cables Vandersteen used back then, believes its the back feed."
There's really nothing to debate. Vandersteen didn't just use AudioQuest cables "back then", whatever that means. He designed products for them, not just used them. As with biamping I clearly stated how it works, and provided references.
"As with anything where you are after improvements, the proof is in the listening."
I agree. No offence, but given the fact that you don't know what vertical biamping is, tells us you can't have any listening experience to verify anything. The same can be said about biwiring. It only makes a real difference that's worth paying for, if its done properly. There used to be others, but the only speaker I know of, that is currently in production and is designed to be biwired, is Vandersteen. So, unless you have listening experience biwiring with Vandersteen speakers, you really can't know the type of difference that's possible. Any Vandersteen owner will tell you the same thing.
If you go back and read my post, my advice to anyone that is thinking of doing biamping or biwiring, is to try it first, before you make a substantial investment. I think that's a pretty reasonable suggestion. Call The Cable Company if you live in the US. They will send you demo cables of anything you want to try, so there is no risk. They also sell components and keep demo units of most pieces. They should be able to send you 2 identical amps to try, so you may want to ask about that, as well. But definitely cables, so take advantage of their demo program.
Rather than use TWO stereo amplifiers to vertically biamp like you described, could I just use four channels from ONE power amplifier to get just as good a result?
@@lawpenner if it is a four channel power amp yes
@@AudioAdvice what if I buy a 5-channel power amplifier, use one channel for my center and then two channels each for Left and Right bi-amped? Is this a good idea?
Or am I better off just buying a beefier 3-Channel power amplifier for the same money and simply bi-wiring Left and Right instead of bi-amping?
I own a rare speaker; Panasonic SB-400.. (same as Technic SB-400.) These speakers allow for true Tri-Amping. So VERY cost prohibiting except that there are now so many affordable Class D amps out there such as the Aiyima A07. If you search for images of these speakers you will find several shots of the rear terminals and the switches selecting your preferred use of one amp, two amps or three amps. My problem is I would have no idea how I could ever integrate three amps between my source and my speakers. What preamp could I use? To me this seems to be an exercise in abstract thinking! BTW, these speakers are rare in the States and were made in Japan in the early 1970's. Sensitivity is 93db. My speakers are in perfect working order and sound incredible with just one amp.
Very interesting speakers. It looks like you would need an electronic crossover in between your preamp and power amps. Did they make a matching one back then? Thanks for watching
Also use fans to pull heat out from the receiver, and to keep it cooler especially in bi-amp mode.
Good tip!
Any recommendations on fans ? I have an old Yamaha with class a and 4 channels. I just bi amped yesterday. Looking into active crossover. But wanna be sure before I chop the passive out. That I’ll be worth it and drop of resell value
Active crossover bi amp - that’s what seems will make the most difference. Can you speak to how that compares as a next step in upgrading? Especially for someone who has a 4 channel amp
That method is by far and away the best. But you need an electronic crossover and a way to fully bypass the internal crossovers. Very few speakers on the market can accommodate that.
@@AudioAdvice What about an external passive crossover ? And how simple is it to just remove the crossover in a speaker?
@@derekviveiros That would just be passive biamping. If you remove it, you need to replace it with an electronic one, and you would need to know all the crossover points and filter slopes. Its not as easy as you might think
When you bi-amp does it matter which input you plug into on the speaker? For instance do you wire the R-Channel to the Top input on the speaker and the R (Bi-Amped) channel to the bottom input on the speaker or does it matter?
That might depend on your receiver. If the internal amps are identical, it should not matter. Thanks for watching
Generally the main front L & R go to the base, and the second jacks labeled Bi-Amp go to the tweeters.
i could hear the difference between silver and copper. so you wire heights with silver and bass with copper . however if you have bi amping is worth a crossover with dsp , because you put less frequencies on each amp and that makes a real difference.
You have great ears, thanks for sharing. Yes, we agree if you have a speaker where you can remove the internal passive crossover, fully biamping is the way to go.
I just ordered a pair of Klipsch speakers on sale (RP-600M ii)and should get them Wednesday. I think I'll try listening to them for a while in the regular fashion before experimenting, but it sounds intriguing. Can you really notice that much of a difference? I've never owned speakers with more than two terminals on the back. I'll be attaching them to my 2-month-old Denon AVR-X4700H. I'm unsure if it can be bi-amped or not, but I have plenty of speaker cable either way.
You should give it a try and let us know what you think.
@@AudioAdvice I just bi-amped my right speaker and left the left one single and listened to them each. I THINK I can tell a slight difference - the bass seems to be a little bit tighter, but I wasn't listening to it at a high volume. Since I don't have any height channels (not enough space in my bedroom and my chair is against the wall) I might as well just keep the one bi-amped and do the other one. I also just got a set, today, actually...a Sunday, of banana plugs I ordered from Amazon. I will be attaching it to my Monster Cable speaker wire tomorrow. I'd heard that they complete a better connection. I've never used them before but they seem pretty easy to assemble. I have a Denon AVR-X4700H.
@@garyausten5939 Thanks for sharing, yes the banana plugs usually give a good connection.
@@AudioAdvice A little note. I had gotten Sewell plugs (packaged nicely in molded plastic) but I had trouble with the thickness on the exterior of the speaker cable halves. I had to wiggle and smash to get some on and one came apart so I had to use some thinner speaker wire (from Walmart). The plugs slipped right over the cable and thought it wouldn't work, but after screwing in the plug half of the assembly it seemed pretty solid. With both main L/R speakers bi-amped it sounds pretty good, but I don't have any video/audio proof of any difference. I'm happy with it, though.
Great explanation! I am going to test out bi-wiring today and see if I actually hear a difference. Either way, it’s a cheap enough upgrade for me to keep it for the long run!
Let us know what you think!
You won’t hear a difference but it looks cool having extra wires running to them.
@Dean I heard slightly better highs and mids with bi-wiring. Some speaker companies claim that bi-wiring can make slight benefits in their products.
But bi-amping of course, makes a more noticeable difference.
Please let me know if you hear a difference 🙏.....
Video is amazing, but as a small question as a small person in this world. My speakers are Polk Audio RTI9 front Towers and JBL Balboa 30 all set . Receiver Onkyo TX-NR575...... How I shoud connect cabals to get the best of the stuff which i head plz help me if You can.
Thanks. Pick the ones that sound best and make them your main front. Then use the other pair as surround. Hope this helps
Also... Side note but VERY important... USE GOOD SPEAKER CABLE. There is a difference.. although slight but noticeable in a real A/B comparison
We agree, thanks for sharing
Hey guys. I’ve just got a set of speakers with 2 terminals and getting confused with how to connect them. So I can use 2 wires for the +/- channels of the speaker terminals and be able to put both the +\- into one + or - terminal on my amp? So 4 wires from the speaker down to 2?
That is basically it, yes, follow the link in the video to the written article which has some diagrams.
I've been debating between the denon s760h and x1700h. Most specs are similar other than marginal power upgrade snd ability to bi amp. But its about a extra $150. Do you believe the bi amping ability is worth the extra cost?
They are very similar, they even weight almost exactly the same. You would probably wind up using all 7 channels and not be able to take advantage of the bi-amping, For more information, please reach out to our team at www.audioadvice.com Thanks for watching
When u use high L and R for bywiring we have only surround back for atmos (2spk) for the remaining 2 atmos speaker what is the best solution. Can we take the pre out of same and connect it to a separate 2ch amp and connect.
You could.
Just saw this video and it gave me some questions. My now old THX Pioneer receiver I went in the menu and looked at Surr Back System, here I have the alternative to Front Bi-Amp.
For years my front speakers is Bi-Wire since I was under the impression that you MUST have two recivers to Bi-Amp your speakers.
But did I understand it correctly that my reciver have a adjustment that let me Bi-Amp the front speakers whitout using two separate recivers?
Yes, some receivers will have this option in the menu!
Thanks for this very useful information. If I hadn't seen the video maybe I would never know this thing you have given me about Bi-Amp. Know few people that have Bi-Amp, but they have used two recivers. So they may not know this is possible for all I know. So thank you for the easy short to the seller for point video of information you has given 👍👌
Bi amping on integrated amps can be possible, you need to house two amps and a crossover on a single integrated amp unit, done. connecting the crossover in between the tone controls and the input of the amps, low and hi frequencies.
Yes, but we do not really know of an integrated amp with that full feature set. Thanks for watching and commenting
I have heard that if you can’t bi wire or bi amp, at least remove the bridge and use a short run of quality speaker wire to bridge. Claims are that the bridge connection more easily comes loose, and that the bridge is not shielded.
Yes, in most speakers the bridge pieces are very flimsy, changing to two short pieces of good speaker wire will improve things for sure
hello, I got Bowers & Wilkins 702 S3 speakers which says MAX 300 W total power coming from amp. I also got a Rotel 5 channel Amp with 210 W each channel. Can I use bi-amp (get 2 channels 210 W each from the amp) and feed 210 W on top and 210 W on the bottom on those B&W speaker? Notice when you explain Bi-Amping, you did not mention limitations about power. Thanks.
Thanks for the question. Reach out to our team of experts via chat or phone at audioadvice.com and they can help you out with this. Thanks!
A less talked about version of vertical bi-amping: using two *stereo* amplifiers
Using two 70w per channel Conrad Johnson Premier 11A tube amps (not bridged) with a pair of B&W Matrix 805’s and two REL T3 passive subwoofers.
One channel of the 1st amp wired to the B&W. driver and sub. Note a REL sub connects to the speaker terminal of the amplifier being used. Then the 2nd channel of the 1st amp is wired to the B&W’s tweeter. Repeat the aforementioned process for the 2nd amp, B&W and REL.
This allows a mono block setup using a pair of stereo amps. If mono blocks were used to do this, would require FOUR mono block amps.
Like the results and while listening to music (not the gear) can hear more top end clarity and detail
For the record, rest of gear: Conrad Johnson PV12 tube preamp (11A RCA’s married to accommodate use with the PV12), Linn LP12 turntable with a Ittok arm and Lingo III external power supply, Naim CD XS? Naim ND5XS Streamer/Media player…and still have my Nakamichi DR2 cassette deck (lot of radio concerts on tape) and my Audiolab 8000T AM/FM Tuner
Thanks for sharing, yes, that is another way to do and the best way to vertically biamp actually since it simulates mono amps. Did you feel the difference was worth the cost of the extra power amp? Nice system too by the way!
Did I feel the difference was worth the cost of the extra power amp? Absolutely! ❤️
Plus, mono blocks from the same era run round 4K a pair. Adding a 2nd 11A and getting it refinished in black to match the 1st 11A (and black PV12 preamp) cost about 2K
Not a fan of the standard champagne CJ finish and nice to have all the gear in understated black
…except the Linn. It has a rare black Ittok arm but also a custom purpleheart wood plinth. For those who don’t know, this wood grows naturally a rich shade of purple 👍🏼
Great channel, subscribed!
@@cirenosnor5768 Thanks for sharing, funny enough, way back in the late 70's we were lucky enough to obtain serial number 001 of the first CJ Preamp, the PV1. That was our founder's first tube preamp.
That pretty amazing, if it’s not still in your circles, wonder where it is now. Most likely worth a small fortune ❤️
@@cirenosnor5768 We wish it was! No idea but yes, probably worth quite a bit.
Hi, thanks for the info. One question remained for me: What about amps with A and B, 2 speaker outputs, but no specific setting for bi-amping. Can they be used for that, output A to lows and B to mids/highs?
Good question, that does not gain you anything, that method might be easier for biwiring though. Thanks for watching
There could be an issue here where the impedance could be halved, similar to having 2 sets of speakers connected. Depending on the amp's capabilities this could increase the current and damage the amp.
I usually use the A channel for the highs and the B channel for the lows but at the end of the day there giving out the same signal from the amp.
I just set my Yamaha c1010 up like this. It made sense to me. How could it be bad to run the a+b speaker channel option? I mean wear and tear possibly, but it’s basically halving the power to both uppers and lowers. Unless there’s a problem with allocating half power to the uppers. Any thoughts would be helpful. Don’t wanna ruin my equipment
I would just buy an extra set of speakers.
Match the equipment well.
Bi wiring is, to me, a way to overcome problems between filter and amp as any amp can be used.
An Equalizer is another helpful instrument. my amp only has Volume😂
Oh yes it does I have upgraded wires over the years and they do make a difference even the missus can hear it
Awesome, thanks for sharing!
4:57 what exactly is the Height connectors?
And I have 2 tower speakers using speakers A&B for each. Thoughts?
On that particular home theater receiver, you can redo the routing of the amp channels for biamping, on this one you use the height channels. Thanks for watching
@@AudioAdvice can you clarify that?
@@justaguy4real some home theater receivers let you use two of the amp channels to biamp. You just have to tell the receiver you are doing it that way. In the one we showed it lets you use the height channels. Using A & B would not biamp as those are pulling from the same amp channels but it is a good way to biwire Hope this helps.
why not using 2-nd channel output 4 the tweakers? if you have multiple output Amp? I mean low on 1 and high to 2 output ch? (each have own cables)
If you have speaker A + B connectors that is a good way to go.
Hey what if I already own 2 identical SONY receivers. Also, can I use an equalizer as a bridge?
No
In biwiring how crossover works. At amplifier side we have only 2 plugs and speaker has 4 plugs. How highs and lows separate out?
There are more details here www.audioadvice.com/videos-reviews/speaker-bi-wiring-bi-amping-explained, but it is a highly debatable subject
Correct me if I am wrong but they don’t separate out.
If my Cambridge amp/cd/receiver unit has a subwoofer out port, and the bookshelf speakers it came with have biwire capabilities (two pos two neg terminals) on each speaker, do the speakers even need to be biwired?
Surely if I plug a powered subwoofer into the unit then I don’t need to biwire?
It’s two different things. You can still biwire if you have a subwoofer.
@@AudioAdvice thank you very much :) it was the part about low end that was confusing me but I guess not low as in “subwoofer” low. I connected them up just with the single + / - wires (each speaker) instead of bi. Connected my subwoofer, turntable, and iPod dock, and it all works beautifully. I couldn’t be arsed biwiring because it took me longer to strip cables and convert to banana plugs which I’ve never done before.
My current outgoing theory for why people hear a difference is the removal of the jumpers. Swapping the jumpers for 6" of speaker wire with y spades on it imo is equal to running new wiring from avr to speaker. Another thing is if you're using say 14 gauge wire and comparing to 2 sets of 14 gauge wire you're technically closer to 12 gauge than 14. Also what kind of speakers you have might make for a bigger difference as a 3 way speaker with the top terminal handling the tweeter + mid vs bottom handling the woofer(s) would make a bigger difference when bi-amping over a 2 way speaker like most bookshelf speakers. Edit: also psycho acoustics such as expectation bias and stuff really make it hard to gauge if it's actually better or not without your mind tricking you
Thanks for sharing! Its a very debated subject.
Each element undoubtably contributes. The average plate jumpers are horrible, so that’s a win just by removing them. Doubling up on the wire also improves things, so again, what’s not to like. Finally, the segregation of the signals is a real benefit, delivering a performance jump in any moderately resolving system. My systems are more than moderate, however, I bi-wired my daughter’s system a couple of weeks back and the overall effect of all of the above delighted everyone who heard it.
Heya! You are literally using the power amp I am asking about (woot woot). Bi Amping specific, do I plug a set of cables into both right termals and both left terminals and then run them into my single set of bi-amp speakers? or is this a no no? So 4 outputs into 2 bi-wire speakers? Get me lol?
That's awesome! Do you have jumpers on then back of your speakers? This sounds like a conventional setup unless you have two amplifiers. Check this page out for some visuals and maybe that would help! www.audioadvice.com/videos-reviews/speaker-bi-wiring-bi-amping-explained/
You can always reach out to our team at audioadvice.com and they can make sure you are set up correctly!
@AudioAdvice thanks for the fast response. Single amp, single set of speakers, 2 sets of outs in amp. Just regular banana plugs into each speaker terminal.
If you choose NOT to bi-wire and use the spkrs with the jumpers in place, do the spkr cables from the amp connect to the HF or LF terminals of the spkr?
LF typically. Another way to improve the sound without biwiring is to replace the cheap, flat, thin jumpers with a short piece of your speaker wire. Thanks for watching
@@AudioAdvice Thank you. I only asked because a user's manual from Tannoy online suggested HF posts to connect to. I thought that was really odd. I wonder why...Thanks for the tip re: replacing the cheap jumpers. Does it matter if I use spades at the bottom or banana / bare wire termination to replace the jumpers with speaker wire?
@@shrimpu Spades or bare would be better as you can torque them tighter
@@AudioAdvice 🙏
Great video, I wish it was longer than 7mins.....
How did you make those 2 Bi wiring speaker cables? RED AND BLAck, did u strip a wire and use 2 Red Copper wire for the red connextions + and 2 Silver metal wires for connecting the Black Terminal connections?
Thank you. Yes we joined them at the amp end although for the cables we used both were copper and we used the jacket color codes. Thanks for watching
My receiver identifies as "Non Binary" but my speakers are "Ferro Fluid" so what do you suggest?
Ferro Fluid is just what is used to cool the tweeter diaphram. What brand and model are your speakers and receiver?
I've heard generally a heavier unit is better than lighter units bc they have more components inside.
With audio components themselves, that is a general rule, more because the power supply will be stout. Thanks for watching
Hello. So I have a question. On my speakers I dont have 4 plugs only 2. But on my reciever å have Bi-Wire mode + on the back i have HF left right and LF keft right. It also has subwoofer, center and surround left and right for bare wires. And then it also has Subwoofer in. Center, Surround L, Surround R, but for plugs. So the question is, can i still not use bi-wire even tho the reciever has the connection? Atm i have everything connected in the bare wire connectors + Sub in the plug. But only the bi-wire works but really bad or if I switch to center mode then only the center plays :S
Your speakers are not set up to be biwired. Your best bet to improve them might be higher quality speaker cable. Thanks for watching
@@AudioAdvice Okey i have some of those thicker cables so maybe i can try. Alto i noticed that i had the aux connected to dvd and not cd so when I switched to cd it got a bit better because there i could use the Pro Logic settings. Thank you :)
I can't see how using different amps would be any issue in a bi-amped set up. In fact my understanding of bi-amps origins was to use valve amps for the "warmer" high end where less power is needed, and solid state for solid bass.
It is a controversial topic, but you bring up another interesting reason some people choose it. Thanks for watching.
I am currently enjoying such a setup, minus the tubes. I have an old 100W Harman Kardon receiver. I tried bi-wiring my speakers (Polk S55) but found the bass overwhelming. Then I bought an Arcam SA10 integrated amp. Using this amp alone, I was getting distortion at higher volumes. So I set it up where the SA10 was driving the tweeter, and I used the SA10 as a preamp with the HK amp as a slave to drive the woofers. It sounds much better now than with any other configuration.
@@Cowplunk so can the same be done with an active crossover?
@@derekviveiros I don't even know what an active crossover is. Sorry.
What will happen if you bi-wire a speaker without removing the jumper brackets first?
You will not hurt anything but then you are not biwiring. Thanks for watching
I believe you should use DIFFERENT cables when biwiring. Use a cable that does top end better for high frequency crossover, and vice versa. Also, why must cables be same length? You do know the speed of light, right?
Some people agree with that. It’s all about testing and listening. The lengths are more about resistance. Thanks for watching
Electricity speed varies depending on many factors including wire gauge, but it’s roughly 90% the speed of light , not to be confused with lightning which travels at 270k mph . I don’t believe different cables should be used for biwiring , that’s the crossover’s job . And as far as different length, our ears may not notice a difference but the amplifier will . If you run one speaker at 12 feet and the other at 3 feet , the 3 foot cable will be warmer .
How in the world do you separate signals when both sets of cables end up connected to the same terminal on the receiver? Ohm it out and you’ll see my point.
I have the 9080 x definitive tower speakers and I have the marantz sr 6014 can I still bi-amp these speakers ?
Those have powered bass drivers, no real need to. Thanks for watching
@@AudioAdvice these have atmos that I don't use so I thought by bi-amping I could put them to use
@@babymaker13th If you mean the upper firing speakers, we would not suggest that unless they are connected to an Atmos channel
@@AudioAdvice ok 👍 thanks
I have 4 ceiling speakers up plus 7.1 with a 2 channel amp but I think I can hook up the top of these towers to ither the subs audio out or the audio out from the avr there is an open spot for hook up
Or if I go for 11.2 ch rather 9.2 will it help me??
You should test biamp first to see if you hear a difference before changing.
is it the same if you have A/B channels? you didn't mention that in you video.
Yes, if you have a and b you could use those connections to biwire
@@AudioAdvice don’t you mean bi amping?
@@derekviveiros No.. A/B.. Are for 2 sets of speakers which will change impedance.
Half the power.
You can also use this option for Bi-wiring.. Which wont change Impedance.
I have 2 klipsch rp8000f ii front left and right tower speakers with an onkyo tx-nr6100 7.2 channel receiver. Today i decided to bi amp the speakers. Everything improved the highs mids and definitely the bass, but there is one problem... some sounds have moved to opposite direction i can notice this in certain songs ive always listened to and especially in games. When i test the left and right channels on the setup i can hear both at the same time instead of hearing just one speaker when switching between left and right. I can also tell it sounds more to the left when it should be only the right speaker making noise and vice versa. Is this a normal thing when bi amping?? Or is something wrong? I double checked all the connections and they are done correctly. I kind of regret bi amping them now because its a pain in the butt to get behind the system and put the jumpers back on... games are useless to me now since the sound is on opposite directions.
It certainly sounds like something is wired incorrectly, from your description it sounds like one of the drivers is out of phase. What you are hearing is not normal with bi-amping at all. Or it is possible the configuration inside your Onkyo is set incorrectly for biamping, that would be easier to check than the wiring
@@AudioAdvice before i did the biamping, i had both speakers connected with banana plugs with the jumpers on. When i decided to bi amp i did not use banana plugs and had to connect the extra cables with stripped ends so the low frequencies have banana plugs and the highs dont... maybe some pieces of stripped wire are out and are not entirely inserted on the receivers plug and is affecting it?. Do you know if it could be the extra amp from the surround heights (biamp option) thats making it sound off like that? The only options on my receiver i can change are the number of channels i have setup (2.1) and i can set "biamp" to yes or no, so i doubt that its the setting on my receiver... anyways thanks for answering i was so happy when i heard the sound improvement everything was perfect but when i noticed some sounds were left instead of right now its just depression not knowing what it is lol
@@Sluggerrr it has to be a connection issue then. Double check at the receiver end.
@@AudioAdvice i finally recieved the banana plugs and i can confirm with you that everything is perfect now the sound stage is actually way better now that it is correct so yes, the issue was biamping with stripped wires instead of banana plugs...happy new year!
@@Sluggerrr Good to hear!
Why didn’t you demonstrate how to connect these wires to that receiver next to you
Go to about 3:15. We show it there!
One question still bugs me and I can't find no answer anywhere: to bi-wire correctly wouldn't you need an amplifier with 4 channels (2 stereo channels, or one like that in your video)? If you bi-wire, let's say with a stereo amplifier, (one left and one right channel) wouldn't you just send the same signal to both speaker cables?
Great question. Two amps is passive biamping which should be better. The theory is the thing biwiring helps is the back feedback from a woofer and by separating the leads the wire feeding the tweeter does not see that. But this is a hotly debated subject and everyone should come to their own conclusion by trying it. Thanks for watching and commenting
@@AudioAdvice I see. This is much more clear now, thanks for clarifying!
I did not hear much difference from bi wiring. I have a paid of B&W 803D. When I bi amped with two separate power amps I heard a huge difference.
Thanks for sharing. Did you upgrade both amps or add one more?
@@AudioAdvice I had two Emotive XPA DR1 amps, I upgraded them both to two XPA DR2s. About 500w per channel and then bi amped the speakers. Made a big difference. Bi wiring made no difference.
I have an amp on which the connections look like the Rotel on the bottom there. You do't explain how to use those connectors.
We are not sure what you mean? Are you referring to biwiring or biamping? Thanks for watching
@@AudioAdvice Hi thanks. Bi-wiring I think, I was wondering if you could use an A + B setting to not bi-wire but use 8 outputs rather than 4. I don't think you can.
@@informedchoice2249 Thanks. You could either biwire using A&B or run two pair of speakers.
Bi-amp forever! What about Tri-Amping?
Yes, you can triamp a few speakers on the markets. Thanks for watching
bi-wiring works with BW bookshelf's.
lets not debate this.
what cable does Audio Advice recommend?
Thanks for sharing, please reach out to our team at www.audioadvice.com for the best advice.
With bi-wiring, does the ohm of the speaker change?
like if you have 4 Ohm speakers, will it turn into 2 Ohm?
That is a great question, since you are connecting things back together on the amp side, it should be exactly the same, but we will put a meter on a couple of set ups to see. Thanks for watching
I am still wondering if I should bi-wire just because I can.
@@chewingcheung if you can, I recommend you do. What do you have to lose?
Bi-amping certainly makes a difference. Bi-wiring… yeah I wouldn’t waste my time
We hear you! Everyone has a different take on this. It's really interesting to get everyone's thoughts on this topic. Thanks for watching!
... but the bi-wired system is still physically linking all the terminals using the same conductive wires. Nothing in the wire knows to split highs from lows and the same "magnetic feedback" will flow through that conductive material. 🤔
This is something that a person who hasn't had training in electrical theory finds hard to visualize. It's also tricky to explain just using words on the internet! 🙂 (It helps to know the difference between voltage and current.)
You're quite right to say nothing in the wire knows to split highs from lows - that's true whether it is a single wired or bi-wired system. It's the two sections of the crossover in the speaker that do the splitting. The low frequency crossover receives current from the wire at those low frequencies and passes it to the woofer, ignoring the high frequencies. The HF crossover does the same for the tweeter, "grabbing" the higher frequencies and ignoring the low ones. (I'm generalizing for simplicity.) The current to drive both woofer and tweeter has to travel together in the one wire as a combined quantity.
When the crossover sections are split and each has its own wire to the amplifier, the low crossover section gets the low frequency current from its wire, and ignores the high frequency portion, passing no (or little) high frequency current to the woofer. So the low frequency current runs along the low frequency wire. The same happens on the other wire, the HF crossover section is "sucking" the current it's looking for through the "high frequency" wire and stopping lower frequency from going through. So even though each wire has the same stuff "available" as a single wire would, each wire is doing less work, only carrying what current the crossover and driver connected to it wants.
Please let me know if this helps to visualize what is going on.
Bi-amp, bi-amp, bi-amp! Bi-amp the hell out of your front left and right and center channel! It's what you should do before you buy a 2nd sub or go beyond 5.1.
I read about so many people with dedicated home theaters that don't bi-amp but then have like MiniDSP and lord knows what else and 15 subs and I wonder why on earth you'd bother feeding 100 watts from an emotiva amplifier to a teeny atmos speaker on your ceiling that plays sound at 1db every 10 days, when you are not separating the power to your LCR which play 90% of the sound and probably cost more than anything in your system.
Unfortunately, the days of AVRs with toroidals are coming to an end as along with the glory days of home theater so it's hard to find an amp that can properly bi-amp your LCR with a single box unless you pony up for the Marantz SR8015 or the Rotel 1580 which cost $4,000-$6,000 and I wouldn't. So you will probably need to get external amplification.
All is not lost, though, as most AVRs do support preamps and you can use them to bi-amp with another 7 channel external amp (6 for the LCR). Then use the amp's power to power all your other speakers.
Great insight, thanks for watching!
0:00
Thanks for watching
Black = negative and red = positive, right? Why are the diagrams opposite on this video?
Good catch, our marketing team pulled those drawings from a speaker wire mfg and no one noticed. The concept is shown properly, but yes, most people use the red for positive. In electrical wiring though black is normally positive and red is a traveler wire.
@@AudioAdvice Haha, yeah I assumed there was a slight slip there. I’ve certainly seen electrical drawings with black=pos as you mentioned, but always home stereo set-ups use the red=pos configuration. Btw, I’m not sold on the biwiring of speakers. My setups usually don’t involve any biwiring and I’m happy with the sound. Certainly fun to experiment with, however.
The only cost is the cables. Of course Audio Advice sells some cables that go for thousands of dollars. Expensive cables, bi-wiring and passive bi-amping are a waste of time and money. Put the money into better speakers, another sub, or acoustic treatments to get real results.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. We agree with you for most situations, spending just a little bit on acoustic treatments or even decorative items like hanging quilts and large leafy plants makes more of an improvement than anything
👍🇬🇧
Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for watching
If you believe in the “back-emp theory” described in this video, then by all means, feel free to experiment with all manner of connecting any number of cables, in any number of combinations, between the full-range red and black outputs of each channel of your audio amplifier and the corresponding red and black terminals of each of your passive loudspeakers. You may then conduct all manner of listening tests, scientific or otherwise (because audiophile quality is ultimately a deeply personal matter), and see if you can perceive any difference whatsoever.
Otherwise, if you have speakers with separate pairs of red and black terminals for high and low frequency drivers, but you don’t care to use separate bi-amped power amplifiers, simply acquire the thickest-gauge dual-conductor speaker cable you prefer, and connect the red and black terminals from your power amplifier outputs to both pairs of red and black terminals on each loudspeaker. If you have any doubts about the electrical quality of your loudspeaker cables, feel free to use an ohmmeter to test the resistance of each conductor (with the speakers disconnected). If that cable resistance is less than 10% of the rated impedance of your passive loudspeakers, you should be good to go.
Thanks for sharing
From the diagram it looks like the same thing
Biamping has more channels being used. But the connections can look similar if you use speaker A&B, but that does use the same amp though. Thanks for watching