Biwiring and Cables, A couple of questions on how to Options

[atici]

I want to buy decent cables for my speakers and was wondering on how the setup should be.

The speakers in question (Infinity Alpha 40) is biwirable. My amp has two pairs of speaker outputs. In this case which one is a better idea: to use biwiring cables or use separate wires using both of the speaker outputs on my amp? If I use separate identical cables, does the length make difference?

And about the cable diameter, are the thick ones necessarily better? If so how much? I am planning to spend around $80 for my cabling. 7 feet cable for each channel is sufficient. Do you have any suggestions on quality but cheap cables? What do you think about the ones here?

Please let me know what you think. Your help is much appreciated.

[Guest_Dex4now_*]

Hi Atici, you have to be careful about articles like the one in the above link. Its very similiar to sites like www.pcabx.com that use test equipment instead of ears to measure audio equipment.

The article above starts off, and never strays away from judging speaker cable by its measured resistance, which has absolutely nothing to do with its fidelity. The resistance of any speaker cable would be negligable relative to the audio circuit, unless, of course, you did something exceptionaly mismatched, like using 24 gauge intercom wire to hook up a 200 watt/ch system.

The difference between zip cord and "good" speaker cables comes from a phenomenon known as the "skin effect". Audio frequencys travel through the skin, or outside edge of a wire. So, good wires are made up of many small wires, braided in such a way as to maximize phase-coherency that might be smeared by inductive interaction in larger wires.

I can't really do the subject justice here, but if you put "skin effect" into your favorite search engine, you'll get many hits on the subject. Keep in mind however, that even this is still arguable as "the" reason one cable sounds better than another. I simply know that some do by virtue of having been in a position to hear the differences. You also must keep in mind, the difference will only be noticeable on a system that is of sufficient quality to make a difference. It isn't going to matter much what speaker wire you use if your playing a Pioneer reciever through JBL's.

But, to get back to your original question, if you can, try your setup both ways, and see if you can tell a difference. If you can't, it doesn't matter. If you can, go with the setup that sounds best to you. Always trust your ears.

Dex