My 4 year old Denon 3800 has extra binding post for bi-wiring. I've outgrown that reciever and was looking at new model. I noticed that no reciever's now have bi-wiring options. Has bi-wiring gone out of style? I know there was a camp that believed there was no benefit. Just wondering.

Spec,

this extra set of terminals on your 3800, are they the
same power output as Left/Right Main ? Or are you
actualy "Bi-Amping" by using both sets of terminals?

I made my own custom Bi-Wires for my AR9's and I think
they sound great.. Do they sound better than when I ran
single wires? hard to say since my POS DVD player does
nothing but distort my music.. I will fix that problem
soon enough!

Spec (and Brett), I believe they were actually parallel terminals, for bi-wiring, mainly because it's tough to get two wires under one binding post. If they were for bi-amping, somewhere there would be a reference to there being four amp channels.

About the benefits, I've personally never heard any, but, then, since I grew up in the 60's and 70's, my hearing is not the best. I believe in one set of 12ga. wires per speaker, but I don't claim to have the final say.

If you feel like it, I'd be glad to re-post here, or email you, a long post I wrote here a while back in response to a bi-wire question.

Larry

Spec - Most bi-wiring options are found on the speakers themselves. A good quality speaker should have provisions for bi-wiring at the wiring posts usually you have to remove a small gold plated bar between the two connections. I think Larry bis right, they are probably parallel terminals.

steve-O

I wish my Onkyo 787 would have had paralell terminals
it sure would have made my custom made Bi-Wires easier
to utilize. What I did with mine was this, on the end
of the Bi-Wire harness where they plug into the back
of the receiver I twisted both 12Ga Positives and both
12Ga Negatives together in pairs and then slid them in
the Radio Shack Banana Plugs. Then I used a good 60/40
Silver Solder and a Propane Torch (you need lots of
heat to get the banana plugs to the temperature where
Silver Solder will "flow") my Solder connections are
well, As close to perfect as you can get! I rarely
toot my own horn but when it comes to wiring I am
very anal and have lots of experiance :)

Do the Bi-Wires sound any better? Well that's totaly
speculation because without some mighty expensive sonic
testing equipment you will never know (contrary to what
some of the "experts" say, your ears are just not THAT
good!). They look good and they have to carry a signal
better than a single 12Ga wire and a set of gold plated
metal straps! and they were cheap to make..

Here is a picture of my custom made 12Ga wires going
into my Acoustic Research Hi-Res AR4C Center Channel



Here is a picture of my custom made 12Ga Bi-Wires which
are not yet 100% complete, I am waiting on my 3/8"
Polyelfin Red and Black heat shrink tubing and my Alpha
Expandable nylon braid sleeving material to get here so
I can finish the cables!



The wire used was Sound King 12 gauge 99.999% Oxygen
Free Copper (OFC) rope braided (300 or so strand count)
which I boght from www.partsexpress.com for $30.00 for
100' You won't get wire this good for less than $100
anywhere else!

Brett, that's funny, I have some 12ga Sound King, too. In your pictures, I was expecting to see two conductors in each banana plug, not four plugs. What I see looks like the speaker end. Am I right? Also, if you used a solid solder, I hope you used flux.

Larry

Larry,

You are correct sir, This is the "speaker" end of the
Bi-Wire harness. The other end (which I did not take
a picture of) has 2 conductors going into one Banana
Termination.

I used 60/40 Rosin Core Solder. I would have used a
solid core silver solder with a seperate liquid flux
agent but I didn't want to pester my best friend for
his liqui-flux (wow that stuff works good!)

My terminations are soldered so well I would hang from
the Empire State Building by them! No cold joints from
this solder junkie :)