Bi-wire v's single with jumper leads.

I have talked to Richard Vandersteen about this very thing. He says that bi-wiring is the best for any speaker that is designed for it..that has an input for the lows and another for the highs. The cables have to be separate runs for each input...that is, you can't have a single cable that splits at the speaker end for bi-wire. I have done that setup as he recommends, and can definitely hear the difference. In addition, I like seperate + and -wires as well. All can view the technical reasons on the Vandersteen website.

At the end of the day, it all comes together at the amp. Vandersteen as noted above, and DIY'er Jon Risch over at AudioAsylum recommend bi-wiring when the HF/LF crossover boards are totally separated, and they each give reasons why bi-wiring is a better approach in that case. My monos have dual binding posts as do my speakers, and I have taken advantage of that to try two totally separate (single)runs of a high quality cable. However, that set-up was bested by a more conventional bi-wire cable, but one in which there are two separate and equal awg runs connected only at a single amp binding post. I can see that there would be a camp that advocates (for a given purchase price) purchasing the highest quality single run cables you can afford then using jumpers, instead of a lesser quality bi-wire cable. BTW, jumpers can be inexpensively constructed using high quality wire obtained through places like Partsconnexion. IMO, instead of using jumpers, the best way would be to solder the speaker lead wires inside your speaker to a single binding post. Few absolutes in this hobby when matching different equipment and wires, so I doubt there will ever be consensus on this question.

Philjolet makes good sense. Wherever possible, try both options in your own system. Though my experience also points to more coherent sound with single wire/jumpers, it's irrelevant to you. Strictly speaking, you must be the judge on this issue, neither I nor anyone else, including the "experts".

Bi-wire by a mile here.....your results may vary. Maybe my supplied jumpers were inferior,I don't know. My "theory" is the LF and HF present two different loads in terms of impedance and frequency and having two sets of cables to carry these separately is better. Also besides my system I have never heard a system that didn't improve from bi-wire and I set up many when I was a dealer both on the display floor and in customer systems. For these comparisons
the same type of cable was always used for LF and HF within a setup although the experience overall represented several types/brands of cables and speakers.

ET

In my comparisons of the same exact cable in a Bi-wire vs shotgun with jumpers, the Bi-wire wins out for a more pleasing musical experience. I find the soundstage to be larger, bass is better defined with a better sense of pace. Treble is sweeter and cleaner. Of course, the cable has to be one of quality and more importantly, it must be synergistic with your amp/speakers as well.