Bi Wire Question.

[Blutarsky]

I was looking at receivers that had an option to Bi Wire the front main speakers when no rear speakers were selected, (if your speakers are bi wireable).

Could I use bi wire cables, 4 bananas to 2 bananas, to run the Bi wired outputs to a speaker with one pair of inputs?

This is either a Eureka moment, or a Newby illusion.

B

[Dark Ranger]

Hmm, that option sounds more like bi-amping to me, since the receiver is tasking additional amplifiers to drive a pair of speakers.

For either bi-amping or bi-wiring configurations, the speaker itself must have two pairs of binding posts, one pair for the tweeter and one pair for the woofer. Tri-amping and tri-wiring is the same thing, except the speaker has three pairs of binding posts (tweeter, mid, woofer).

One big difference between bi-amping and bi-wiring is at the amplifier:

Bi-wiring - this configuration uses one pair of binding posts (+/-) at the amplifier distribution panel, with two pairs of cable running to the speaker. One cable pair goes to the tweeter, the other cable pair goes to the woofer. However, the speaker is still driven through one discrete channel on the amplifier via one pair of binding posts. Therefore, power handling has not been increased.

Bi-amping - this configuration uses two pairs of binding posts (+/-) at the amplifier distribution panel, with two pairs of cable running to the speaker. One cable pair goes to the tweeter, the other cable pair goes to the woofer. Because the tweeter and the woofer have dedicated amplifier sources, the speaker typically offers greater power handling and lower distortion, to name just a few.

(Yes, I realize there are other factors in play like crossover design and signal filtering, but I'm focusing on the connections).


With all of that said, the Sierras don't offer two sets of binding posts, so bi-amping or bi-wiring is not possible. At the moment, the only Ascend speaker that offer two pairs of binding posts is the CMT-340 SE (main and center), so bi-wiring is an option with these.

Honestly, I wouldn't worry about it too much. For most HT and music setups, the extra cost and complexity isn't justified in my opinion.