I don't understand - what has the number of drivers and the x-over layout got to do with the effectiveness or not of bi-wiring? Yes bi = two and that simply means that a separate line feeds the highs [and mids as applicable] and a separate line feeds the lows.
Yeah .. Bi-wiring is like a two piece bikini :licklips:
So why is it not possible to bypass the Xover at all?
--G0bble
The ONLY way you can bypass a crossover entirely is by not having a crossover at all, and that's only possible by using a Full range driver to produce entire spectrum.
These drivers have much bigger magnets and are designed differently from multi way drivers.
Ok, basically in a multi driver setup, the tweeter produces high freq and woofers meds / lows right?
When you bi wire / bi amp a speaker via the 4 terminals on the rear, the crossover section dedicated to the tweeter is responsible for suppressing all mid and low frequencies below a defined crossover point. Without this, the tweeter receives mid and low frequencies which not only are beyond the tweeters capabilities, it also damages it.
Similarly on the section dedicated to the woofers, it is specialized with components to suppress / remove all high frequencies to prevent something called cone breakup where the woofer is trying to do too much and fails at everything.
Over and above this when there are two woofers, the power is once again divided between two drivers so the tweeter's configuration has to be matched accordingly as the power it is receiving is essentially double that of the power getting shared by the two woofers.
Here are some crossover types.
2 way speakers with crossovers designed for seperating tweeter from med+low woofer
2.5 way speakers where a tweeter is separated from 2 woofers (2 to produce more bass than a 2 way speaker but tweeter crossover has to be configured properly so it does not go too far the divided power of two woofers.)
3 way speakers with dedicated high range, midrange and low range.
However how can you have bi for high and low when there are triple drivers for high med AND low frequencies?
When a 3 way speaker has bi wire config on the rear, the tweeter and midrange are clubbed together while dedicated low woofer gets one entire binding post dedicated for it. This again is something the crossover design determines how good the sound is.
A simple solution with 3 way speakers to balance the power without complicating the crossover is by simply adding another low range woofer making it two low drivers and 2 drivers for med and high (1 each)
Some high end 3 way speakers are Tri-wireable/tri ampable.
However in the OP's case it is a 3 way speaker with biamp (the most common type of 3 way)
So in regard to the OP's original question of
How is a 'huge difference' like this possible if bi-wiring is not supposed to give any benefits?
The huge difference only happens when the crossover is well designed. The people who say it makes no difference either don't have the equipment that can take advantage of clean power from biwiring or they fail to recognize / pay attention to the improvement of the sound because it's beyond their comprehension.
Usually low end equipment are not able to benefit from biwiring / biamping / cleaner power. As you are able to audibly notice a difference, it means it has a crossover which is able to take advantage of the cleaner power it is receiving.
, but the point is to show that the change is not my imagination.
