If I may throw in my two-cents worth here:

Bi-wire simply means using more than one pair of wires to feed a single channel's signal to a speaker, with the links removed. The wires are paralleled at the amp, and the high and low sections of the speaker receive the same signal, just through separate wires. You should keep polarity constant at both ends.

Bi-amping means that the high and low sections of the speaker are fed the same channel's signal, except through separate amplifiers. Ideally, the high and low frequencies are divided by an active crossover ahead of the amps, and the crossover components bypassed. This would require opening the speakers, and probably voiding the warranty.

If the crossover components are not bypassed, and you just use the speaker's high and low terminals, you don't need an active crossover, just a Y-cord to feed the amps. The amps will have slightly less control of the speaker drivers' motion.

Now, this brings us to bi- vs. di-polar wiring. This is done only when the speakers have separate terminals for the drivers on opposing faces of the speaker enclosure.

If the polarity is kept constant, then the drivers on the two faces move outward (relative to the speaker enclosure) and inward together; this is bi-polar. My Definitive Technology speakers use this configuration, and it actually most resembles the way real sound waves propagate through a space from real sound sources.

If one face has the polarity reversed relatively to the other, then you have di-polar, which is used to reduce the ability to audibly pinpoint the speaker location in the room. This is the way sound radiates from planar speakers (such as Magnepans) and normal speaker drivers not enclosed. THX and other preferences specify this configuration.

Note that a speaker with only one set of drivers can be bi-wired, but once again, the polarity should not be reversed to one set of terminals; this will only reduce the quality of the sound about the crossover frequency between the woofer and tweeter.

You certainly can wire bi-wireable speakers either for di- or bi-polar connection. In fact, if I were going to wire my speakers for bi-wiring, I would connect the wires polarity-correct at the speakers, and, if and when the desire hit me, change the polarity at the amp end of the wires.

The advice about blowing fuses was misguided, and assumed that the negative connections inside the speaker were joined independently of the external links, which is untrue. With both links removed, the high and low sections are completely isolated, and no shorting will occur. Only a speaker with links on only the positive terminals would present this concern.

I hope this info was helpful. For more in-depth info, do a search on "bi-amping" and "bi-wiring" in the search section.

Larry
www.fineelectricco.com