Help with bi-wiring

Jjrenman, I agree with you as I have terminated many various types of cables in years past. Many people have the ability and/or experience to do so, however I have seen attempts by some that looked like a 4 year old did it. The purpose of my comment was that if the OP did not have 100% full confidence in his ability, implied by this comment,

but I feel my cutting this cable in half would open a can of worms that I wouldn't be prepared to deal with.

then just let someone else do it.
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Greyhound, to begin with I believe the OP is using a basic stereo preamp with no Audyssey, nevertheless let’s look at a few facts, and some more articles for reading, if you care to do so.

As noted in the article I provided in my first post, the manufacturer of his speakers states to use identical cables, as different ones will “interfere with the proper blending of the woofer and midrange driver through the crossover point.” Further explanation of this can be found in this article from Audioquest,

http://www2.audioquest.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/UndrstndgBiWr.pdf

The paragraph at “Biwiring and Cable Geometry” explains how the different electrical characteristics of different cables affect the crossover to compromise coherency.

And finally, this post by a well respected amplifier designer states that using different cables “just messes-up the system coherence.” This is also a good read about bi-amping.

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?aamps&1234896660&openfrom&6&4#6

So, my question is, does it make good sense to purposely do things that really screw up the sound, in hopes that Audyssey can completely correct them. Seems to me it would be best to follow proper basic guidelines in setting up a system.

I have a lot of experience biwiring Vandersteens. Use 2 completely separate runs of the same exact cable. If you use 2 different cables, you will hear the difference. One option you may want to consider is having the 2 runs of cable terminated together at the amp end. AQ does it for me, I'm pretty sure kimber will do it as well.

Tls49,

No offense intended. My comment about "not rocket science" was specific to Kimber Kable. Lots of other brands are far more difficult to cut and terminate for various reasons and should only be done by the cable maker or someone who is fully competent to do so.

Well, I have used different cables from top vs bottom and to my ears ,I have not screwed up the sound. I suppose the possibility is there to do so and you can't go wrong by using the same . I just do not agree that if you use different cables , it WILL screw up the sound.
So i will concur that using the same cables top to bottom is a safe bet. No argument on that