Today we’re gonna touch on just one of the hundreds, if not thousands of ways that you can improve the quality of your sound system without upgrading your equipment. Depending on the type of gear you have, the layout of your system, and (perhaps most importantly) your patience, there are quite a few affordable ways to calibrate or organize your setup that may end up boosting the sound quality. 

The one we’re discussing today is bi-wiring and bi-amping. This can only be done on your system if your speakers have two sets of terminals. If you see two sets of connections with bridges connecting the positives and the negatives, then you’re good to go.

The Basics

Before getting into any details, what does bi-wiring mean? Well, it’s exactly as it sounds. ‘Bi-wiring’ refers to using both of the connections on your speakers (assuming you did pass the check in the last paragraph) instead of just one. So, you’d have two wires running to each speaker. What does this do? Well, bi-wiring has been proven by audio engineers at QAcoustics to reduce distortion in an audio signal. This means greater resolution, clarity, and spatial precision. Whether or not you will notice that difference in distortion is completely subjective, which is why many audiophiles may argue that it simply isn’t worth the trouble. 

The Science

For those interested in the science behind it, this is how bi-wiring actually works:

The crossover within a speaker typically separates the audio signal and sends the high frequencies to the tweeter and the low frequencies to the driver. Without bi-wiring, the high and low frequencies are ‘travel buddies’ and can interfere with each other — something known as ‘intermodulation distortion’. This is what disrupts the audio signal and leads to a less clear or accurate result. When bi-wiring is used, the high and low frequencies are kept completely separated from amplifier to speaker, meaning less intermodulation distortion. 

The Results

Again, the results of bi-wiring in your home are subjective, and the quality produced by your system also relies on hundreds of other factors that may be limiting the effects of bi-wiring to begin with. We recommend this trick for audiophiles who already have the specific gear they like and have their system adjusted in the room to account for things like acoustics and the ideal listening position. A recording studio with acoustic treatment and compatible gear is a fantastic opportunity to try bi-wiring.

If you want to try bi-wiring and your amplifier only has one set of connections for each speaker, then you’ll have to manually connect the wires, and it may not be quite as effective as using an amplifier that’s also configured for it. 

Bi-Amping

To take it one (large) step further, if your speakers are capable of bi-wiring then you could also try bi-amping. Just as bi-wiring means using two sets of wires, bi-amping means using two amplifiers. That’s right, two amps.

The main reason to use bi-amping is to introduce additional power into the system. As we discussed in the last post about choosing an amplifier, it’s always a good idea to have some headroom to ensure that you don’t ever risk under-powering your speakers and potentially damaging them. 

That being said, there aren’t too many scenarios in which using two amplifiers would be more beneficial than using one ‘nicer’ amp. So if you’re considering trying bi-amping, our first recommendation is to shop around for a different amplifier instead. 

Happy listening!