I have bi wire speaker cables going into B&W 4 terminal speakers. I want to replace the B&Ws with some ELAC speakers that have 2 terminals. I don't want to run new speaker wire. How do I connect the bi wire cables to the 2 terminal speakers? Any help appreciated.
Yes, but you will have 2 connectors not connected to anything, you might want to tape them so they do not make contact to anything. Or you put the 4 wires into only 2 plugs.
Thanks. I was thinking of taping the extra connectors. I assume there would be no loss of sound quality by having the 2 unconnected connectors. I would pull new wire if I had to, but it's a bit of a process and I'd prefer not to.
If their spades there might be room to connect both terminals in your binding posts, if not there's connecters to combine two spades or banana's together.
Thanks. They are bananas and your suggestion of the combination connectors would be the tidiest solution. I'll see if I can find those. Maybe Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/WJSTN-Female..._r=674BAQY6GRXEC914DCYP&qid=1656025267&sr=8-5 There are quite a few "banana -> fork" adapters on Amazon.
Yes, that's right! You normally insert one pair of cables with bananas into the banana female connector on the Elac speaker. You put these adapters on another pair of cables and connect them like forks. You need to unscrew the connector on the speaker a little, put the forks in and screw it back on. Put the forks first, then the bananas.
Contact the cable maker and have them reterminate. I have one set of spades at my amp with two separate cables. I just asked them to do it.
You would be using approx half the gauge of the cable that way though. You could also clip the existing bananas and combine/twist the reds and blacks together. Put on some new terminations that can accept the new thicker gauge bare ends. This would avoid an extra Y adapter. Later on you could reverse that process if you need bi-wire again.
Thanks, that's what I thought. Thanks everyone. My question is answered. I think we owe a debt of gratitude to Steve Hoffman for making this incredible resource available to us. If you have an audio or music related question the answer is here. Many thanks to you all.
Very good; this is (possibly) an even more elegant solution to the "bi-wire -> mono-vire" problem. Admittedly, I personally prefer “flat” than “barrel” bananas because the “barrel” type of banana sometimes cracks in the speaker or amplifier terminal. I know 2 such cases.
That's not quite true. He would lose wire gauge. Joining the positive/positive and negative/negative wires then reterminating the ends or using the Y connectors is the better idea.
Honestly, the best option would be to purchase new mono-wire speaker cables. It should be noted that each break of the cable / wire / conductor, each new contact brings a certain signal loss. But let a colleague still use their existing cables and everything will be mostly OK
It wouldn't matter if the cable was one inch or 10 feet if half of it isn't used you lose wire gauge.
Ok, yes you loose gauge, what matters is not gauge, it is signal, the electricity travelling in the cables and it does not matter for his short runs, because you still have plenty of gauge left, hence you are not loosing anything. End of the conversation, if you don't agree, look at the specs of his cable, do the math and prove me wrong.
This seems pretty simple in the short term stacked spades will work, I ran stacked spades briefly when I had to borrow a pair of speaker cables and it worked just fine. In the long term sell your bi-wire cables and get single wire or re-terminate them.
