What is internal and external biwire?


What's the difference between an internal biwire and and external biwire? What are the advantages of one compared to the other? I just bought Paradigm Studio 100s, a Bryston 4BST, and am shopping for my first set of biwires. So far I am thinking DH Labs Q10 or Kimber 8TC......... any thoughts?
jhimnsue
Zu Cable www.zucable.com Julians in a "shotgun style" bi-wire are better in my tests than the Q10. The Shotgun style is basically a double run of cable terminated together on the AMP end. Please note that the guys at Zu had previous work at many of the big name companies. They have a quality product and great customer service. Check out the auctions here and at ebay, they often have cables up at a good discount. maybe you can find the WAX (their hi-end) in a bi-wire, in your price range.
As already stated, the "shotgun" bi-wire pattern has two completely separate runs of wire that are joined together at the amplifier end -- think of it like a giant "V". The internal bi-wire involves using a single run of wire (usually braided) and separating the braids or wires into two terminations at both the amp and speaker ends.

Richard Vandersteen, in an interview with one of the major audio mags, talked about his research into the merits of bi-wiring (recommended for the Vandy 3A and Model 5 speakers), and stated that the primary benefit of using a true (shotgun) bi-wire is to minimize the effects of interplay between the electrical fields in the two sets of wires. Apparently, this ensures that the mid/high frequency drivers get a clean signal that is "uncontaminated" by interaction with the low frequency signal. Vandersteen also said that speakers with dual crossovers/speaker posts will benefit the most from shotgun bi-wiring.
Jhiminsue - you can try out the Wax wires for 30 days which is a nice option but you'll have to get the boys @ Zu to make the leads longer than their stock version for your 4B-ST if you are going to use their copper spades. You can't hook both the terminations into the binding posts at the same time when using the spades. They can also supply WBT connectors which is what I ended up using. As we both own the same amp you'll understand where I'm coming from. The Wax wires are very good at what one can typically buy them at here at auction but were bettered by my reference cables - still an excellent cable and I can attest that the boys @ Zu are great to work with.