SBW or jumpers?

[JordanD]

Just curious of the reasons, if any, why I should buy a speaker wire that is configured in SBW (Single Bi-wire) or if it adds no benefit vs. just buying a set of jumpers.

I am just curious which way I should go or what the pros. vs. cons. are. first being if I SBW then its a cheaper configuration.

BTW I do have Theos, and I way looking at the AQ Comet or Gibraltar speaker wire, if it matters.

 

[Peter Soderberg]

since the theos is passive, you will probably gain from a biwire configuration versus a bridge assuming your choice is for the same cable quality in biwire or single wire configurtion. IF the cost of the biwire is high versus the single wire version, that might jump you to a better cable which is better than a cheaper cable and biwire. I found if one can stretch to a much better cable and then go to a simple jumper, you will get better performance. if the upgrade to biwire termination is not crazy than do that.

 

[mopar04]

I have SBW AQ Gibraltars connecting my Emotiva XPA-2 to my Theos, and I've bee extremely happy with them. I hear a bit more detail an bass extension using SBW Gibraltars, I was using AQ Type4 single wire cables with jumpers for my A/B comparison. I'll admit that Gibraltars and Type4s arent an apple to apple comparison though.

 

[JordanD]

I kind of figured that is the answer I would get, but as a self checking system I always like to get other opinions as well. Thank you both for the reply!

Oh and just as a side note that AQ does not charge more to configure a cable in either FR or SBW, the price difference I was referring to was the fact that if I did a FR cable configuration I would also have to buy jumper and that would jack the price up an couple hundred bucks.

 

[Peter Soderberg]

good on the lack of upcharge for biwire so do that.
But, a couple of hundred for jumpers? just get a couple of left over chunks of good cable and make you own for essentially pennies. It won't take much to better the metal bridges that are on there.