biwire. change -ve leads and wow!

[adamt]

I cant really explain this but...

I have a biwireable 2 way speaker (DIY of course!) and crossover. I must have mixed up the -ve leads from the crossover to the speakers so the -ve for the high frequency tweeter was hooked up to the woofer, and the low frequence -ve lead from the crossover was hooked up to the tweeter. The positive leads were both correctly connected.

By swapping the -ve leads to the correct way around, all of a sudden:
- bass frequencies returned and went lower
- upper mid and high frequency harshness/brightness reduced
- soundstage deepened
- enjoyment factor rose dramatically!

Can anyone explain this? was it phase problems, distortion from the tweeter trying to do too much, frequency cancellation?

regards

One happy diyer!!

[Salas]

Did you actually use 2 sets of wire to the amp at the time?
If yes, you probably restored the intended cable characteristics by running +/- via corresponding pairs.

[richie00boy]

There must be something else you have missed, the -ve wires come from the same point at the amp, it doesn't matter one bit which one you use.

The symptoms you have I would expect to come from incorrect phasing, i.e. tweeter wrong way connected.

[adamt]

Thanks for you responses

I run biwire from the amp (ie four wires = a positive and negative for each channel) from the amp to the crossover, and then the same from the crossover to the speakers.

In the connection from the crossover to the speakers, I accidently connected the negative from the low frequencies on the crossover board, to the negative on the tweeter speaker (high frequency) and vice versa.

When I changed the negative leads from the crossover to the speaker to their proper connections, thats when things improved.
My initial thought was that is should not make any difference, but maybe the phase changed, and frequencies that were previously 'cancelled' were fixed.

But, I am not sure this is the correct answer...

[Tuukka]

what are you using for the amp(s)?

[sreten]

Originally posted by richie00boy
There must be something else you have missed, the -ve wires come from
the same point at the amp, it doesn't matter one bit which one you use.

Hmmm..... but it does .... think about the currents in each pair, /sreten.

[richie00boy]

Assuming same kind of wire used for treble and bass, and all wires within reasonable proximity of each other, I'm struggling to see how anything else can matter.

At the amp end the -ve wires are joined together, and the +ve wires are joined together. Bi-amping might show funny results if the amps were separate, but not basic bi-wiring.

[sreten]

Hi,

assume each pair is close together and the two cables are seperated .....

In one case for the pairs the current are equal and opposite .......

In the other case they are anything but .......

For say twisted cables field cancelation occurs in one case but not the other .....

/sreten.

[richie00boy]

Hmm OK but that goes against the assumption I stated in my opening paragraph. Still debatable as to how much impact the feild would have as well.

[adamt]

I run a cyrus 6 amplifier - solid state about 40w per channel.

The cable is Chord Rumour 4, and is the same cable used throughout. My speakers are Dynaudio.

On my crossover board, I have kept the high frequency and low frequency components seperate. So two strands are cojoined on the amp terminals, then split to their own sections on the crossover board, and then go seperately to the speaker drivers from the crossover board. (= biwire).

Last night I again was shaking my head at the difference. The whole system has opened up. Lower bass, less high frequency sibilance, and less volume required on the amp to obtain the same perceived sound level.

The sound gods must be laughing...

Thanks for your interesting input