[Lenni]

I know it's a touchy subject with many arguing about its benefit. . . but my question is if you decide to bi-wire is it better/same to use two pair of cables or a single pair with one end terminated in four cores?

 

[Duggeh]

If its a standard 2 core cable, and you split one end to four connections, then that isn't bi-wiring. You need 4 seperate cores.

 

[musicman59]

DuggeH is right. If you have a pair of bi-wired cables inside of each lead are at least 4 lines. At the amplifier side 2 of them are together for the positive and the other two for the negative then at the speaker side you will have the four leads. Positive and negative for the bass and positive and negative for the mid/highs.

The other things you are taking about is was people call "external bi-wire". That is when you have two independent speakers cables each one with it's positive and negative at both sides and using one cable for the bass and another for the mid/highs.

In theory "external bi-wire" should be better. I tried it before (I still have the cables) and to be honest I did any significant difference.

I think gages and/or materials between the bass section of the cable and the mid/highs section probably make more of a difference. Many manufacturers use bigger gauge at the bass section compared to the mid/highs section or even different materials like copper for the bass and silver plated copper (or silver) for the mid/highs.