crossovers

[VJ]

Hello,

My colleague and I were talking about hifi stuff, and stumbled upon something odd... It has us puzzled...

The loudspeakers I have (Quadral Argent 70, now discontinued) have 2 inputs (4 banana plugs). In default configuration, they are bridged (2 by 2, you can see the gold contacts making the bridge) and according to the manual, this means that the crossover (IIRC the one at at 300 Hz) is used. The manual also states that by removing the bridge and bi-wiring or bi-amping the speaker, the crossover is bypassed.

How can this be?

I mean, you don't connect the bananaplugs *after* the crossover, but before it (the crossover is internal in the speaker), so why what causes this difference (bridge present => crossover; bridge removed => no crossover)?



Jörg

[Fluff]

I the first bit of the crossover will be bypassed but there will still be high and low pass filters after those terminals.

Biwiring is a waste of time.

http://www.djsociety.org/Bi-Amp.htm check that out.

[lAmerZ]

check this: http://sound.westhost.com/bi-amp.htm#bi_wiring
anyways, I've tried bi-wiring some times ago but couldn't discover any major improvements in sound...

[KvHagedorn]

B&W has dual ports for biwiring on most of their speakers. The 700 series and above actually has discrete crossovers for low and high inputs. Biwiring is good mainly because you can get more wire to the speaker.. a larger aggregate gauge. Sometimes, with some speakers, the impedance of the bass sections drops more than the mid/treble, which might have some effect, and people often biwire with 12ga on the bass and 14ga on the treble (10awg aggregate.) Personally, I'm using 9awg on the bass and 12awg on the mid/treble. Dunno what guage that makes, but at 12.5ft per run, I think I could say it's ample.

[VJ]

Hmm... My question wasn't "should I biwire or not", but how the bypassing of the crossover happens... I mean, this is what the back of the speakers looks like:

.-(+)  (-)-.
|          |
'-(+)  (-)-'

So you see the four terminals, and the bridges between them. Normally, they recommend (with the bridges present), to connect a top connector and a bottom connector. (dunno why, but ok)

Now, if you biamp or biwire, the back looks like this:

(+)  (-)

(+)  (-)

With all four connectors connected. But I don't really see the difference (regarding the crossovers).

In the first scenario, the signal is distributed to top and bottom at the speaker. If you bi-wire, don't you just distribute the signal at the amp? Even if you bi-amp, don't both amps send the same signal?

If so, How can it be that the crossover isn't there anymore (as the manual states)...


Jörg