Bi Wire Speaker Cable - And Easy Way To Improve Sound Quality

It is possible to improve the quality of many modern speakers by bi-wiring them. True audiophiles know very well how bi wire speaker cable enhance their audio experience.

If you wish to bi-wire your audio speakers, you must first check to see if your speakers can be bi-wired. Each speaker needs to have two pairs of binding posts at the rear of the speaker. If this is so, your speakers can reproduce higher sound quality once they are bi-wired.

You can bi-wire with two separate sets of speaker cables, generating quite a spaghetti salad of wires, or you can use a bi-wire speaker cable, where two pairs of wires are housed neatly in one cable. A bi-wire speaker cable looks exactly as you would expect; like two sets of speaker wires wound together into one big wire. The conductors are identical, and when they are working together, they improve the quality of the sound the speaker produces by separating the high from the low frequency inputs. The signal transmission improves because there is less interference between the frequencies; the frequencies are, in a way, filtered, separated and protected. This reduces any eventual distortion at the amplifier.

You can get a bi-wire speaker cable in different models to adapt to your needs and preferences. You can select a cable with spade, banana, or pin terminations, and you must calculate the length of cable you will need. Bi-wire cables range in price from around $20 to several hundred dollars, depending on the quality of the materials that compose the cables and the length and terminations of the cable. Many are custom built and custom terminated to satisfy the most demanding audiophile. It is not recommended that you buy the cable without termination, and install your choice of plugs yourself. So much depends on the proper and complete contact of the parts that only soldering and sealing can guarantee. Plugs are available on the market in a variety of metals, including copper, silver, and gold and combinations of these. The bare strands of wire wrapped around the binding posts so often used in the past, have given way to effective and long lasting connectors, which will neither loosen nor rust.

Always taking the precaution to first turn off all electrical components, you will connect the bi-wire speaker cable firmly to the respective positive and the negative poles. This is, of course, crucial. One of the sets of cables will connect to the tweeter (high) frequency binding posts, and the other will connect to the woofer (low) frequency binding posts, of that channel. Then the other end of the cable with connect to the amplifier’s respective speaker binding posts. You must then repeat this process with the other channel.

An audio system is a major investment and brings many hours of enjoyment to its owner. Often little advantage is taken of the excellent technology available, which improves quality, safety, and even the aesthetics of your equipment. Using bi-wire audio cables is one such improvement.