Bi amp or bi wire speakers using jumper

In simple terms, the practice of bi-amping involves the use of an active crossover network on an audio signal so that the crossover sends high-frequency audio HF into one amp and low-frequency audio LF into another amp. Both of these amps are connected to different inputs on the speaker. The first amp powers the tweeter in the speaker, while the second amp powers the woofer in the speaker. Getting your head around all this mumbo jumbo can be confusing with all the different specifics of the setup. This article will take a deep dive into bi-amping: the science behind it, different types of bi-amping setups, and the pros and cons of this approach.

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Content:

• How to Bi-Wire and Bi-Amp Your Speakers
• How to Make the Most Out of Your Bi-Wired Loudspeakers
• Is speaker bi-wiring worthwhile ?
• Cable Bridges, Bi-wiring and Bi-amping: clearly explained
• Why bi-wiring has no benefits
• Bi-Amping Speakers (A Fully Illustrated Mega Guide)
• Bi-Wiring without Bi-Amping
• Monowiring, bi-wiring or bi-amping in Hi-Fi. What are they?
• How and Why to Bi-Amp Your Speakers

WATCH RELATED VIDEO: How does bi-wiring work?

How to Bi-Wire and Bi-Amp Your Speakers

In simple terms, the practice of bi-amping involves the use of an active crossover network on an audio signal so that the crossover sends high-frequency audio HF into one amp and low-frequency audio LF into another amp. Both of these amps are connected to different inputs on the speaker.

The first amp powers the tweeter in the speaker, while the second amp powers the woofer in the speaker. Getting your head around all this mumbo jumbo can be confusing with all the different specifics of the setup. This article will take a deep dive into bi-amping: the science behind it, different types of bi-amping setups, and the pros and cons of this approach.

By the end of this article, you will have a solid grasp of the practice of bi-amping. While bi-wiring uses one amp, bi-amping uses two amps.

One amp is for the HF audio and the other is for the LF audio. The result is that the audio that reaches the tweeter will be the HF audio and the audio that reaches the woofer will be the LF audio. Bi-wiring a speaker is a requirement in order to bi-amp a speaker. In total, there will be 2 connectors on the amp end and 4 connectors on the speaker end. The semiconductor transistors were less expensive and more durable.

Tube amps struggle to reproduce low frequencies accurately. Solid-state amps have problems reproducing the high end. Someone eventually took both of those elements and hooked up the tube amps to drive the tweeters and the solid-state amps to drive the woofers.

This is an early example of bi-amping, but not the only approach you can take by any means. If more speakers are added, each speaker would get the same wiring configuration from its own amp.

If the speaker has 2 pairs of terminals, a jumper strap is used to connect them, so the HF input and LF input on the speakers both receive the same full audio signal. These terms designate if the built-in passive crossover in the speaker is used or if an active crossover is used before the audio goes into the 2 amps. In other words, the type of crossover used determines the difference between passive and active bi-amping. The same audio is routed to two different amps.

Active bi-amping occurs when audio is put into an active crossover which sends the HF audio to one amp and the LF audio to another amp. These are then routed similarly to the passive bi-amp, with the HF audio ending up at the tweeter and the LF audio ending up at the woofer. Crossovers are used to filter and separate audio into its high frequency and low-frequency content.

Passive crossovers filter the audio after its level has been raised in the amp to speaker level. These crossovers are usually designed for a specific crossover frequency. Due to lower frequencies needing more power to move, there is a possibility of there ending up being an excess of power in the passive crossover filter.

This excess power ends up in the resistors, which then gets converted into heat. All of those internal passive crossover networks would consume a lot of power and generate a lot of heat.

Active crossovers take line-level or preamp signal, filter it, and then send the audio to the amp. These crossovers usually allow easy control in order to adjust the crossover frequency. Active crossovers are necessary for large live sound venues that use huge numbers of speakers. With active bi-amping, the crossover occurs before the amplification of audio, so the amp ends up amplifying the filtered line-level audio lower than speaker level.

These setups involve changing where different amp channels are routed to. They can both be set up to be in the active or passive bi-amping configuration with the placement and choice of crossover networks in the signal flow. Vertical bi-amping is when each speaker gets one amp devoted to its HF and one amp devoted to its LF. Each speaker gets its own pair of amps or a stereo amp routed into just that speaker. The audio signal is sent into the pair of amps. The other amp channel sends speaker level audio into the woofer.

Usually, this setup involves two stereo amps, one for each speaker. Horizontal bi-amping is where each pair of stereo amps is devoted to sending a specific filtered frequency range.

One amp has both its left and right channels going to the tweeters of each speaker. The other amp has both its left and right channels going to the woofers of each speaker. This setup most likely will always be an active bi-amp setup. Suppose you have an output device, an audio signal, an amplifier, and a speaker. The starting point in this instance is the actual socket where the signal exits the output of some device- usually the headphone socket of a phone, television, laptop, or the outputs on a console.

Here, the amp raises the signal to speaker level, which is a higher voltage for driving speakers. A speaker is a transducer, converting the energy passing through it from one type to another. In this case, the speaker takes the electrical audio signal and converts it to mechanical energy that moves the cone of the speaker. This leads us to a discussion on….

We measure these frequencies in cycles per second or Hertz. When listening to music, at any given moment in time, you will be hearing a number of frequencies simultaneously. If you want to hear these individual frequencies better, you can play around with an equalizer or EQ. To get a good grasp of EQ, read our article on equalization EQ , which demonstrates these concepts by looking at EQ on vocals. In short, sound waves change the air pressure.

Pressure waves that oscillate fast enough result in audible sound. Sound waves with a higher number of wave cycles per second have a higher frequency. We perceive higher frequencies as being higher in pitch than other frequencies. Different frequencies move the speaker cones in different ways. Reproducing the higher wavelengths lower frequencies requires more movement from the cone.

This is why speaker cones for lower frequencies are larger in size than ones meant for higher frequencies. In the bi-amping scenario, we have referred to, there are two sets of inputs per driver. There is a positive and negative terminal pair for the HF driver tweeter and another terminal pair for the LF woofer. The positive audio signal and the negative audio signal travel down their own respective wires for each set of conductor wire for each driver.

The leads are wound up in a coil around one pole of the magnet inside the speaker. When current is passed through a wire, a magnetic field is generated.

The amount of positive and negative signal sent to the voice coil is determined by the polarity of the signal if the signal is positive or negative relative to a zero point. In simple terms, the whole speaker is connected so that a signal with one polarity results in the magnetic field attracting the diaphragm, and by extension the cone, inward, while a signal with the opposite polarity will result in the outward movement of the cone. In a correctly wired speaker, a signal to the positive wire will result in the cone moving outward, and a signal to the negative wire results in the cone moving inward.

The resulting magnetic field gives energy to the voice coil that moves the speaker cone. Sending a current through a wire generates a magnetic field. Speakers, nowadays, consist of 2 cones. The woofer is meant for low frequencies, and the other, the tweeter, is meant for high frequencies. Speakers will usually have an internal crossover that comes after the speaker input and before the transducer in the signal flow.

Older speakers will likely not have the option for two different inputs, and therefore will not be capable of being bi-wired. Simply put, bi-amping involves using two amplifiers to handle the low and high-frequency components of a signal separately, then sending these signals to the woofers low frequencies or tweeters high frequencies on a set of speakers.

Bi-wiring is not the same thing as bi-amping as it only involves the use of one amp; however, bi-wiring is a requirement for bi-amping your speakers.

There are different variations on the bi-amping setup. The passive and active bi-amping setups differ according to what type of crossover is used. This depends on where the crossover is placed in the signal flow in relation to the amp.

The vertical and horizontal bi-amping setups show more ways to wire multiple amps and speakers together for different results. Your email address will not be published. Interviews See All. Is Tape Undergoing A Renaissance? Editorial See All. Led Zeppelin vs. The Results. Ask The Hive. Jasmine Mills. Disclosure : We may receive commissions when you click our links and make purchases. Read our full affiliate disclosure here.

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How to Make the Most Out of Your Bi-Wired Loudspeakers

I know for me, I went with a custom bi-wiring cable from Blue Jeans on the newest pair of speakers. I definately like it better than using a connecting bridge. I read conflicting opinions on the benefit of greater wpc. Some hold that it improves the SQ, albeit most of this info is in amp adverts. Others say wpc only provides more volume, which seems to be the consensus. The conflict is when people, whose opinions I have come to respect, say that these approaches make a difference. A difference how?

Is speaker bi-wiring worthwhile ?

This is a subject that drives me a little batty at times because not all speakers benefit from bi-wiring. If I used terminated jumpers, bi-wiring the linearrays sounded better, but when I accessed the crossover and summed the leads running to the high frequencies to the bottom set of binding posts, eliminating the need for jumpers, the speakers performed much better. Yesterday, after speaking with Walter Liederman from Underwood HiFi, and discussing his new line of cables, the subject of bi-wiring came up. I told him how much better my Von Schweikert speakers sounded bi-wired, vs using very good terminated jumpers. He suggested instead to use the shortest possible leads of bare 12 gauge unterminated wire as jumpers. Last night I decided to give it try. At first, I tried 14 gauge silver wire. Two speakers really grabbed my attention. Both of these speakers use beryllium tweeters, and had a very extended, detailed, and airy top end, all the while sounding very natural. They were also very resolving in the mid-range and bass.

Cable Bridges, Bi-wiring and Bi-amping: clearly explained

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Why bi-wiring has no benefits

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Bi-Amping Speakers (A Fully Illustrated Mega Guide)

Why bi-wiring has no benefits When a properly designed and constructed speaker cables are used in standard configuration there are no benefits of bi-wiring. Rather bi-wiring has great potential to cause timing differences, incoherence in the audio signal and unnecessary cable cost. There might be valid reasons for your findings although the statement above holds true, as explained below. Why bi-wiring has won unjustified recognition It should be noted that the sound can be improve by bi-wiring in some specific situations. The sad part though is that those "improvements" all depend on insufficient equipment and can be better rectified with other solutions than bi-wiring. Rdc being the dominating parameter for speaker cables. By Ohms law we know that the Rdc will reduce by half when using double cable runs, which is the most common way to bi-wire. This will in many cases lead to a distinct audible increase in overall loudness level.

Bi-Wiring without Bi-Amping

Do your loudspeakers have multiple sets of terminals on their rear panels? If they do, they have been configured with a bi-wire or possibly tri-wire crossover. This generally means that they were designed so that one pair of terminals are designated for the high frequencies and the other pair for the low frequencies. Great news—bi-wirable crossovers could mean wonderful audible enhancements for your system!

Monowiring, bi-wiring or bi-amping in Hi-Fi. What are they?

RELATED VIDEO: Bi Wiring, Bi Amping What is it?

LOG IN. I will be using Krell electronics with them. Thanks in advance for your input. Edit Delete. Bi wiring is one of these audiophile myths, just like the entire obsession with cables.

How and Why to Bi-Amp Your Speakers

In my tests in no way exhaustive, but I was curious from many years ago I found that it did depend on the speakers in question; some liked A best, others C, sometimes D such as F configuration. In all cases I found dispensing with any metal links to be beneficial. I usually use the C configuration, which was recommended to me by a local hi-fi guru many years ago, But Richard is right, it depends upon the speaker. Why oh why do speaker manufacturers put two or three pairs on their speakers when hardly anyone bi or tri wires their speakers? I bet nearly everyone sticks with the crappy metal links and therefore never hears their speakers at their best.

What is bi-wiring and bi-amping? Bi-wiring is one means of connecting a speaker to an audio amplifier. Typically, a single cable runs from the output of the amplifier to the terminals of the speaker enclosure this connection is called monowiring, however worthy of improvement. In bi-wiring, however, each speaker has two pairs of connectors and two cables are run from the output of the amplifier to the speaker cabinet.