Bi-wiring mitigates or eliminates this distortion by separating the low frequency conductor from the high frequency conductor. The key word is separate. It's of no value to run the two cables bundled together (even though this is what 50 percent or more of audiophiles do).
To make bi-wiring effective the two cables need to be separated by a few inches. If you haven't bi-wired with separate cables, you haven't bi-wired.
I'm confused because each wire is still carrying the entire spectrum of information. Both wires come from the same source with the source putting out the complete spectrum. There is no active separation of the frequencies (active crossover...) in the speaker terminal posts at the receiver.
The only real active separation of information occurs with the subwoofer, at the receiver for which there is an active crossover that is hopefully adjustable in some fashion or through a high-pass filter(terminology help, please) on the sub itself. Otherwise, the subs would be outputting their entire possible range of frequency. Subs don't magically have only the correct information sent to them.
I rarely have seen any bi-wire scheme that isn't wired with both wires connecting to the same post on a receiver. Even when they're split on different terminals (some receivers allow bi-wiring by utilizing the "presence speakers" terminals) each wire is
still carrying the same information.
It's like running two pipelines to your house from the same lake and believing that your water is somehow cleaner than your neighbor's water because he only used one pipe. Same make of pipes, by the way.
Even if the receiver were actively splitting the "low frequencies" and "high frequencies" to the speakers where is the line drawn between what is low and high? What about the "mid frequencies"?
My understanding is that for bi-wiring to actually have any benefit the crossover needs to be an active crossover and utilize amplifiers in some fashion for each range of sound.
Interesting little article on
crossovers
-pat
