Think about it Peng, and draw it out. Once the jumpers are removed, then the two wires are electrically long jumpers. What you have in essence is a long jumpers connected to the speaker sockets.
Not true, please see my lengthy response below.
The signal is the same in both wires but the power transfer is different.
Sorry but this is totally false!
I did this many times here before but let me do it for you just one more time out of respect. The signals in the two pairs are NOT the same.!
Yes, let's draw it out! Forget about the power transfer due to wire size etc. for now. Focus on the signal path as follow:
1. At the common terminals of the amp, the amp will see 2 pair of wires.
2. At the speaker end the small jumper or link is removed, splitting the internal crossover so the high and the low are no longer tied together via the external link.
3. The crossover now becomes two separately connected network between the separated hi/lo speaker terminals and the speaker voice coils.
4. So now the two (bi-wire) pair of speaker wires and the two (hi/lo crossover network) and speakers (tweeter/bass) each present to the amp two different loads in terms of impedance characteristic.
5. The pair of wire for the bass driver(s) will offer high impedance to high frequencies and low impedance for low frequencies. It therefore will draw mostly the bass signal and reject the high frequency signal.
6. The pair of wire for the tweeter will offer high impedance to low frequency signals and low impedance to high frequency signals. It will therefore draw mostly high frequency signals and reject the bass signals.
So it is not correct to say the signals in the two pair of wires are the same. They are not, not in frequency spectrum and not in magnitude. From 5. and 6. above you may agree that the tweeter will receive its preferred high frequency signals all the way from the amp's output terminals to the voice coil in the bi-wire mode, while it will still only get the preferred high frequency signal in the non bi-wire mode but the speaker wires will have to carry the heavy bass signal currents as well; and the believer claims the heavy bass current will interact with the high frequency signals carried by the same wire. So they prefer the high/low freq signals separated and carried by two separate pair of wires.
That is pretty much the theory, but again, I
don't believe it would make an audible difference either but let's not claim this nonsense (I know someone started it long ago)about "just a long jumper" thereby implying some of the believers (that include reputable audio equipment manufacturers) don't know what they are talking about.
By the way if you search this forum you will find that jneutron, a respected member, did spend some time showing the difference albeit small in terms of circuit theory. I can do that too if I take the time but it will only be understood by people who is familiar with advanced circuit and field theory so there is not much point.
On the practical side, I am sure you have the tool to do an experiment on your own. All you have to do is to hook one biwireable speaker up in bi-wire configuration and measure the current in each pair of wires and you will see the difference in magnitude of the current each carries. If you use a scope you will see the difference in terms of frequency spectrum as well. If the claim about "just a longer jumper" is true you will see equal currents in both pair of wires. You do not need an oscilloscope or spectrum analyser to this truth.
I think people will not be happy if we reactivate this debate so if you wish we can do it via PM.
Thanks,
peng
