Bi-wiring is a great way of getting you to buy twice as much cable than you need.
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I think my grammar went a bit screwy there!
Bi-wiring is the devils work. As you should know that already.
In my view biwiring is simply pointless - but a good way to persuade people to cough up twice the amount for speaker cables.
And with Naim amps you’ll need 4x not 2x (unless you already have very long runs): putting cables in parallel, which is what biwiring does, halves the inductance, so you’ll need twice the minimum length to achieve the required inductance.
You could use biwire speaker cables with 2 plugs at the amp end and 4 plugs at the speakers end if you didn’t want to use aftermarket speaker links.
It’s a pointless 90’s fad.
True certain amp and speaker combinations sound better bi-wired but Naim isn’t one if them.
Now I’ve heard the benefits on say an Arcam amp and Mission speaker combination many times. But, it’s more likely that this was more down to the bi-wire cable and the removal of natty links at the speaker terminals than the configuration. A single wire cable with the same properties as a bi-wire and quality jumper leads at the speaker ends instead of those metal links would probably do the trick too.
Still confused why bi-amping is promoted as an upgrade with the Supernaits given the above comments.
biwiring and biamping are not remotely similar.
For a start, biamping increases the current available to a speaker which may be necessary when a single, significantly more powerful amp is still many times for expensive than two lesser power amps.
A better and more powerful single power amp may be preferred but can also be cost prohibitive.
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I suspect the reason Naim put a biamp output on the Supernait is that if you have an integrated amp, that suggests that you don’t want to climb the separates ladder to a 3/4/5 box amp, so it gives you a more affordable/compact way of adding more power if your speakers need it.
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Ah, thanks for pointing that out. I’ve done some research now and have learnt some good stuff. Cheers.
If you want to know Naim’s view on bi-wiring, bi-amping etc…, then have a read of the FAQ on the subject:
I think I’m more confused now. The SN2 has a recommended upgrade running bi-amp to a NAP200 in the manual? Is that the only option with matched performance? Does a 250 work, or do use that in place of the SN2 power amp section?
SN2 offers the option because regardless of Naim’s preference, there are many speakers that offer bi-wire terminals, and if a SN owner is upgrading run steps they might wish to first buy a separate Naim power amp, in which case they can try running either just the SN2 as pre-amp into the power amp, or if the speakers allow, to try passive bi-amping.
A NAP200 seems like a fair example of the kind of power amp you might be moving up to, and maybe trying out with passive bi-amping; it’s there as a possible example. A 250 will work too although it’s starting to get a bit power amp heavy, so only think of it as a step towards a separate pre-amp and power supply, such as the NAC282/SC or NAC252, or even a NAC552.
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I have read of some others using a multi channel AV amp of 5 channels - with 4 of those channels used for a bi-wired connection to speakers with great results.
Naim did used to offer the NAP V145. With 4 of those you could theoretically successfully run a bi-wired system or passive bi-amped system. Wonder if anyone did ?
Often any benefits form biwiring, if there at all, are often just the result of removing the factory fitted links. It’s worth consdiering jumper cables if biwiring is a choice
Absolutely. Often the metal links provided are a big hindrance to good sound. But then I guess that makes the jump to bi-wiring seem much greater than it really is.
Why are the factory links no good. Eddy currents?
I don’t know, they just usually sound rubbish to me when compared to proper speaker cables.
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Often, even on expensive speakers, they’re not even copper.
Possibly because it’s simply not audible over the few cm distance we’re talking about, but then again a few cm of decent cable doesn’t need to cost much and definitely won’t hurt.
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