Bi-ampable speaker terminals

Squishman

Squishman

Audioholic General
I have Klipsch Heresy III's which have bi-ampable terminals. I have never bi-amped and do not plan to. Question though: Is the brass band (or I suppose it's gold-plated steel) the best connection for that? It is the stock Klipsch connecting bands. Just wondering if I could do better by making (or buying) banana Y connectors, with a banana jack input and two banana plugs. Make, or buy four of those. If I did make them, it would be with top-quality copper stranded wire probably 8 ga. Or can you not improve on the existing bands or strips? Another thought just popped into my head.... use Y connectors, but keep the bands also hooked up. None of the above? The strips are fine as is?
 
Verdinut

Verdinut

Audioholic Spartan
I have Klipsch Heresy III's which have bi-ampable terminals. I have never bi-amped and do not plan to. Question though: Is the brass band (or I suppose it's gold-plated steel) the best connection for that? It is the stock Klipsch connecting bands. Just wondering if I could do better by making (or buying) banana Y connectors, with a banana jack input and two banana plugs. Make, or buy four of those. If I did make them, it would be with top-quality copper stranded wire probably 8 ga. Or can you not improve on the existing bands or strips? Another thought just popped into my head.... use Y connectors, but keep the bands also hooked up. None of the above? The strips are fine as is?
What is supplied by the manufacturer is sufficient. Even if you replaced the gold plated jumper, you wouldn't get any audible improvement. Why spend money for nothing any better?
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Why did you think they weren't sufficient? That might be more interesting.....
 
Squishman

Squishman

Audioholic General
I didn't. It was a question if it was and if there are better. That's all.
 
Squishman

Squishman

Audioholic General
I didn't actually think the band is not sufficient. My Heresy III's sound fantastic.
 
K

KNOTSCOTT

Enthusiast
You can also bi-wire with those split bi-ampable terminals. The theory is that the impedance caused by passive speaker crossover will force the low frequencies and high frequencies to split at the amp output instead of at the speaker input terminals. So the LF gets carried only by the bottom wire, and the higher frequencies by the top wire.

Plenty of folks will say it's a waste, don't bother, but one thing is for sure.....doing nothing will make zero improvement. You can experiment for the cost of a decent set of wire....even something like Monoprice 12 or 14 awg OFC should suffice. Experimenting is part of the fun for me.
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
Yup, and I'm one of them! :)
Passive Bi-Amping and Bi Wiring both are a waste.
Doing it correctly is all fine and good, no harm should come to your gear.
For all the time I spent researching this and talking to others, the simple fact is that nothing measurable happens when you do either of these things. In fact several Professional Speaker Designers I've spoken with scoff at the idea of either.
As for this:
The theory is that the impedance caused by passive speaker crossover will force the low frequencies and high frequencies to split at the amp instead of at the terminals.
Not even possible. Physics doesn't work like that.
Yes, there will be different draw through each cable going to the High and Low circuits, but the full signal will still be transmitted. It is just the load that will change based on the circuit being fed. Still, no measurable audible benefit has ever bee found.

Regardless, experiment away if you choose. :)
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
Plenty of folks will say it's a waste, don't bother, but one thing is for sure.....doing nothing will make zero improvement.
It is a waste, and in this case doing something will make zero improvement.

Like Ryan said tho, no harm in it if done correctly and a good placebo is almost like the real thing. ;)
 
Verdinut

Verdinut

Audioholic Spartan
You can also bi-wire with those split bi-ampable terminals. The theory is that the impedance caused by passive speaker crossover will force the low frequencies and high frequencies to split at the amp output instead of at the speaker input terminals. So the LF gets carried only by the bottom wire, and the higher frequencies by the top wire.

Plenty of folks will say it's a waste, don't bother, but one thing is for sure.....doing nothing will make zero improvement. You can experiment for the cost of a decent set of wire....even something like Monoprice 12 or 14 awg OFC should suffice. Experimenting is part of the fun for me.
And how will you know that there is or not an improvement? To be sure, you would need two identical systems where a double blind comparison is done. Even then, the human hearing memory being rather short, you would not be able to discern between the two connections. Also, even if there was some measurable subtile improvement, the human ear could not detect it anyway.
 
K

KNOTSCOTT

Enthusiast
I can't speak to bi-wiring from personal experience, but can tell you that on my system, vertical bi-amping with two identical two channel amps made a notable difference. It gives the benefit of monoblocks...(dedicated power supply for each channel, with zero crosstalk). In addition, one channel has the more difficult task of driving the woofer, while freeing the other channel for the easier task of driving the midbass/tweeter drivers. There's an improvement to separation, clarity, dynamics, and soundstage.

(- see Bob Latino's comments on vertical bi-amping - https://dynacotubeaudio.forumotion.com/t3088-bi-amping-with-two-vta-amps.
- Crutchfield on bi-amping - https://www.crutchfield.ca/S-cZMBk4Z8WdD/learn/why-biamp-your-speakers.html)
 
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