Recommend me some speakers.

so we have the usher s520, the panasonic xr-57, and the dayton 12+ some 18 gauge monster cable..
 
No, seriously, screw Monster. It's a load of overpriced crap that they try to tell people is full of magic pixie dust, but really it's only copper wire the same as any other copper wire of that spec.
 
Yeah man. That will sound NICE. You HAVE to get the speakers right though. Might take a bit of tweaking but since the Ushers are front ported and small, they will do great on your desk. Just a matter of putting them on spikes? (I forget if they use those) or some small anti-vibration pads to separate them from the desk.

By doing the bi-wire, you get even better detail from an already detailed setup. Result is so smooth it will sound weird at first.
 
yeah i can buy some anti vibration pads..will be ordering sometime next week..can't wait lol
 
spaceman said:
no. bi-wire is powering the highs and lows separate. the USher s-520s and the Xr-57 is the cheapest way of achieving this. Result is negotiable but I found it LIVELY as all get out.

You can certainly find the Ushers used for $300 on audiogon, the XR-57 you might have to buy new at $250 or so. That only leaves $150 for a sub but a 10 or 12 inch dayton is still a sweet kicker.
Click to expand...

Bi-wiring is when you take a single amplification source and split the wire in half. You connect 11 gauge cable on the amplifier end, then split it off into two 14-gauge threads on the other end and connect one to the high frequency post, the other to the low frequency post. From a basic physics circuit perspective, there is no difference. That said, I do bi-wire just for fun; but I don't believe there is an acoustical difference.

Now you might be thinking of Bi-AMPING which is taking two amplification sources and connecting one to the high frequency post and the other to the low frequency post. There is arguably a difference in power but the problem with bi-amping is tweeters rarely use up any power to start with. However, there's no denying that there is an increase (if incremental) in power current that the loudspeaker receives.

triple-amp.jpg


As far as speaker cable, 18-20 gauge is what comes with computer speakers. I honestly wouldn't go thinner than 16 gauge, otherwise you are seriously losing out in low frequency sounds.

Here's a recommendation from Audioholics:
# Less than 30 feet: 16 gauge
# 30 - 50 feet: 14 gauge
# 50 - 100 feet: 12 gauge
# 100+ feet: 10 gauge (or 14/4 cable which works out to 11 gauge)
# Audioholic: 10-12 gauge, regardless of distance

I use 16 gauge for my rears (which I run with about 45 feet of speaker wire) and I run 12 gauge for my fronts. This is for my home theater...in my office room I bi-wire with dual 14-gauge with my Usher Be-718s (if you twist the bi-wire cable together you get 11 gauge) and 16 gauge in the rears with about 25 feet of wiring).

Lol Spaceman are you advocating bi-wiring for budget audio? Bi-wiring is not cheap and the effects are highly debated, and mostly laughable from a physics point of view.

Bi-amping is an arguable position but bi-wiring is arguably worse since the LF post is receiving a lower amount of current. You'd probably be better off twisting the bi-wire ends together for a thicker gauge.
 
Is Bi-amping is what I meant? I used the same setup with the Xr-57 and 520s and loved it. It brought more detail to the setup than the normal wiring did. Since the XR-57 and 520s are excellent budget choices anyway, why not utilize the Bi-amp feature?

Check me on this. Below is from the XR-57 panny page.

When using bi-wired speakers with the SA-XR57, each speaker is driven by three amps for even higher sound quality. This bi-amp system drives the treble range with a single amp and the bass range with dual amps, using a total of six amps for high stereo fidelity.

http://www.panasonic.com.au/products/details.cfm?productID=4976
 
it isn't that complicated. I just used the wrong terminology. check out the manual for the xr-57 in the link.
 
The XR55/57/59 uses 2 amps per channel in stereo mode. If you bi-amp that's 3 amps per channel.

Bi-wiring is effectively splitting a wire into 2...that's about it.
 
Well, there are people that "biwire" and literally use two wires that are connected to the same place at both ends. This is functionally identical to just using a thicker wire. But it also buys you extra added noise for free because of the extra connections and such. :rolleyes:

One-amp-per-driver by whatever name can help clean up the signal very slightly, and can give the woofers a bit more current which can be nice. Also you get more e-peen.
 
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