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Bi-Wire


MistaChy

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Twist the positive wires together and put them on one terminal. Do the same for the negative side. Basically you're just doubling the size of the wire in this case. It's only needed if your wires are too small to begin with.

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The only benefit that I can see (or hear) is if your speaker wires are undersized and can't properly carry the signal, then bi-wiring would be beneficial. I bi-wired my RF-7s and try as I might I couldn't hear a difference even though I really wanted to.

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wow... i just got done bi wiring... and yes i notice a difference. there is more definition in the audio and it sounds "cleaner". i hear a noticable difference when listening to music

wow wow wow..... really noticable, wow wow wow.... sounds good!!!!!! this is amazing

i have the highs on channel A and the woofers on channel B

the highs are really noticable, they sound more ...... "precise"... man i cant explain it, the sound is really different, and nice.... very clean, or "cleaner". the highs have much more detail... man this is gettin crazier by the second. this is nice. im excited [:D] im in bi wire heaven with these elegant highs

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Please refer to page 38 of your user's manual to see how to properly bi-amp them. Using A and B channels is not how you want to do it.

okay they must have told me wrong over the phone. ill look at it and see whats up

well i just called them and they are closed... ill have to ask them tomarrow about what page 38 says. but i made several calls to their tech support and more than one technician told me to use channel A and B

on the phone they told me using speaker C was for double the power, using A&B was for bi wire

all im certain of at this point is these speakers sound very clean and crisp... very detailed. a big difference

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thats crazy! the guy you spoke to has no idea, you will only get benifit from biwiring if you use active crossovers, and as for doubleing your power thats not right it just chewing up amp power and running it hotter,

my 2 cents [:D]

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thats crazy! the guy you spoke to has no idea, you will only get benifit from biwiring if you use active crossovers, and as for doubleing your power thats not right it just chewing up amp power and running it hotter,

my 2 cents Big Smile

well that sounds strange. i made 3 calls with questions and talked to two differnet tech guys and they both said A&B for bi wiring and that speakers C inputs were reserved for bi amping, not biwiring. im definately calling them tomarrow to confirm whats going on. but i tell you what, my stuff sounds better! clean like, really smooth

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yes, it does and here is why:

How Bi-wiring Works by Jon Risch

Bi-wiring is accomplished via separate pairs of terminals on the loudspeaker system, typically one pair for the woofer, and one pair for the tweeter or midrange and tweeter. They are completely separated electrically from one another. The normal function of a loudspeaker crossover is to guide the proper frequency's to the proper driver. Lows to the woofer, and highs to the tweeter. This is done in part for protection from the division of labor that has occured with two disparate speakers: tweeters will be damaged or destroyed if exposed to low frequency's and woofers just heat up when exposed to the higher frequency's, as they are too massive to respond at all. The other function that a crossover provides is in allowing the two speakers to blend together, to mesh with one another to become a single apparent sound source. They can also provide some passive EQ of the drive units, as long as there is excess energy to throw away.

The fundamental way a loudspeaker crossover works is to vary the impedance seen by the speaker and by the power amplifier. In the case of the woofer, the crossover network for it has a very low series impedance at low frequency's that gets gradually higher and higher in impedance between the amp and the speaker at higher frequency's. For very low frequency's, there is lots of current flow to the woofer, and for higher frequency's, there is little current flow due to the much higher impedance. In the case of the tweeter, at low frequency's the series impedance is very high and very little current flows, and as the frequency goes higher, the impedance of the crossover network gets lower and lets through more current.

The situation is such that when the full range musical signal is applied to the terminals of a full-range speaker system, the woofer only gets sent low frequency signals, and the tweeter only gets sent high frequency signals. Once the crossover networks have been electrically separated, they still continue to function in the same manner, having a low impedance in their passband of application.

This means that if separate speaker cables are hooked up for the woofer and it's portion of the network, and the tweeter, and it's portion of the network, not only have the speakers and the frequency's directed and divided for them, but the two separate speaker cables will now also carry different signals, the woofer cable mostly the lows, and the tweeter cable mostly the highs.

Once the highs and lows have been separated in this fashion, the strong current pulses and surges that a woofer demands when reproducing bass or drums will not interact with the delicate sounds of a flute or cymbal. The magnetic field of the low frequency signals cannot modulate or interfere with the highs, and to a lesser extent, the reverse is true.

Now that the low and high frequency signals have been divided among not only the speaker drivers, but the speaker cables, these cables can be more specialized for their intended purpose. The woofer cable can concentrate on low DCR, and not have any big concern for extremely low inductance, the tweeter cable can be designed for very low inductance, and not as concerned about total DCR.

Bi-wiring: Using one much larger unsophisticated cable to achieve the same thing as bi-wiring is just not possible, the separation of work has not occurred, and the ability to optimize each separate run is not available. Additionally, as the gauge of a wire decreases (the wire gets fatter) and the spacing between the pair of wires that constitute a speaker cable gets greater, the inductance tends to go up. Using one larger unsophisticated cable actually makes things worse for the tweeter, as even though the DCR has gone down and the woofer gets more energy compared to the thinner single cable, the tweeter now gets less energy in the extreme highs. The net result is a shift in the tonal balance that can even exceed the criteria held dear by the ABXers.

The current path's I describe can easily be plotted, measured and verified by any speaker or cable engineer. There is absolutely no doubt whatsoever about their existence or validity. In point of fact, properly implemented bi-wiring has benefits that can not be achieved by a single unsophisticated cable or even a single exotic cable.

Jon Risch

Tblasing: According to Straightwaire.com , the level of improvement is proportional to the difference in impedance between the high frequency driver(s) and the low frequency driver(s). For example, If the the low drivers are at, say, 8 ohms and highs are at 3 ohms, bi-wiring would have "X" amount of improvement. Then if the low drivers are, say, 6-7 ohms and the highs are at 8 ohms, the improvement would be "X" amount less noticeable.

I think it's due to the magnetic fields along the wire (which requires current), which with bi-wiring, the wires supplying the high current levels driving the low frequencies are isolated from the wires driving the mids and highs, and inductive interference is therefore reduced. When these currents are combined in a single wire, the self-inductance along the wire causes the magnetic fields of the low frequencies to affect those of the high frequencies, compromising HF performance.

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I have always liked my RF-5's and RC-7 bi-wired, makes for a slightly cleaner sound in my opinion.

I would not bother to bi-wire speakers which do not have the seperate terminals for bi-wiring.

Also you do not use the A/B speaker terminals on your receiver to bi-wire use only one terminal (normally A ).

A/B terminals are for connecting a different set of speakers and it is best to only use one at a time either A or B.

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I took a fast glance at the user manual for your Marantz. I think what you may be doing is using the bi-amp feature in the Marantz. If so this is fine, bi-wiring and bi-amping are similar but not the same thing.

The most important thing is to set up your system as to what sounds best to you, everyone is different and there is no perfect way. So as long as you don't do something that harms your system set things up how it pleases you the most. Try advice from others to see if you like their advice, if you do great, if you don't then don't use it. One reason why there are so many settings and ways to set things up is because there is no perfect setting that is perfect for everyone.

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gentlemen, ive been doing some research, and in most threads ive read about this topic about bi-wiring, it always starts a flame war. lots of people swear they hear a difference and lots of people say they hear no difference. also, lots of people say it will harm your amp if you use A&B to biwire and that it will change the impedence level and others argue that it wont and its safe and an alternative way of doing it. marantz operational technical support is telling me to unequivically use channels A and B for bi-wire and channels A and C for bi amping. both arguments seem credible but this is what ive noticed.

i notice no difference when i splice the cables and use only the A channel vs using A&B inputs, but when i plug the speakers in without biwiring them, i hear a flatter tone. not as crisp or precise. but when it is biwired, my tweeters come alive and make love to my ears. the word i can make up to describe it is ambiatic. the highs especially get an adrenaline boost and they sound magical. the bass is distortion free and smooth. it wasnt distorted in the first place but you can tell that its a very clear and very smooth difference. the biggest difference though like i said is the highs. they just jump right out at me like never before.

has anyone else noticed this besides rich guy?

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Phantom audio improvement strikes again. Unless the signal is split with an acitive crossover BEFORE the power amps, you are getting the same signal on both wires.

Then again, if your power amps are weak to begin with, you might hear an imporvement in sound quality but this is just a case of not enough amps in the first place.

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