I am wondering if I should bi-wire my PSB Image 4t speakers that I recently bought. They will be driven using a NAD c160/c270 combo and using an NAD c541i.
Would it be a good idea to bi-wire these speakers from my c270? Would this give me better sound? Also, I believe there are 2 pairs of binding posts on the back of my c270, is there a way I should wire the speakers using both sets?
Money is tight, so I don't want to screw up the cabling the first time.
If I do not bi-wire it is likely I will use audioquest type 4 cable (6 ft. runs). Is there other cable that would be better with this equipment and what cable should I look at if I do bi-wire the speakers?
If u use both your amps .. u would do "bi-amping" not bi-wiring .... now so much for technical bullshit .... here is what u will have to do.
Use one of the amps the c270 ... Connect the speakers LF binding post to the speaker output of the c270 ... now connect the c160 to the HF binding posts of your speakers ... effectively what u have done is that one of ur amps is driving the bass/mid bass drivers and your other amp is driving the Midrange/tweeters ... i believe that u should get interesting enjoyable results .... The reason i am a little conservative is that i have never used two different power rating amps to bi-amp ..bi-amping is to be technically carried out with same power rating amps ... but who cares about the technical aspects as long as u enjoy the music.
There is something called vertical bi-amping ... which basically means take two identical amps ...connect one amp to one speaker and the other to second speaker ... by this u are dedicating one amp to each speaker ... effectlively making ur integrated amp into a power amp ... usually this yields better results ... worth exploring ..if u can manage to spend on a new amp.
Try out both the options and let me know. For the wire ..i would recomment if u can get QED wire ... even their entry level cables are pretty good ...U will basically have to run 8 runs of wire ... 4 from each speaker.
I believe that Be-wiring is just one of the myths in the audio world that did not explode yet. I know that one of the leading manufacturer of loudspeakers, Dynaudio does not put Be-wired terminal in their speakers at all. From my experience I have found that if Bi-wiring has any influence on the sound it is for worse because it intensifies the bass and cause it to boom
Landroval ... thx for the correction ... it was obviously a case of answering too soon, without reading the details.
to Asimo;s point ... while there is a school of thought that exists that does not believe Bi-wiring is of any significance ... I have had tremendous improvements in my system when i first bi-wired my quads ... Then Bi-amping took it to another level ... however .. like all things in audiophilia ... eventually u should go with whatever "floats your boat" ... and sounds good to you.
Some speakers benefit a great deal from biwiring and some do not. This depends in part on the design of the speaker. For example, B&Ws seem to improve quite a bit with biwire. However, my experience is that a single run of better wire will outperform a biwire run of inferior wire. I believe this is because the better wire simply has less wrong with its presentation and therefore you're not multiplying the mistakes by biwiring. So - in my view go with better wire if you can.
I haven't heard the latest Audioquest wires. Traditionally I found them to be somewhat dry in presentation so not my taste. NAD has a neutral presentation so neutral cables would be my choice. QED Silver anniversary is a touch bright although a good cable. Chord Co cables are more neutral. You could go with Chord Carnival if money is that tight, Rumour if money is available, Odyssey if you're flush!
Regards, Frank.
Byron MacDougal
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Are Chord cables or QED cables available in the USA?
I don't want to jump into another wire debate, but I'll just throw in my 2 cents. Over the years I have bi-amped and bi-wired. Some equipment will benefit from it, some won't. I have personally found that if you replace the supplied brass jumpers, with quality bare wire jumpers, bi wiring is not necessary. This is assuming you are using quality speaker wire. For the record-all wire does not all sound the same.
