After 38 years of using hi-end equipment and being immersed in hifi using some systems that included bi & tri-amping, bi & tri-wiring and megabuck cables - I will go on line stating that in double blind listening tests (with millisecond A/B switiching +/- 0.5dB) there is NO IMPROVEMENT WHAT SO EVER, MEASURABLE OR AUDIBLE achieved by simply using more wire UNLESS you are using wire that is too thin for your speaker run in the first place.
In electronically measurable terms (and even audible ones) biwiring is simply not going to improve your set-up one iota. It may assuage an advertising-riddled mind; it may impress the less knowledgeable audiophile, but the actual results are that you will pay money for nothing at all. Nada, Nyet, Bupkus. Biwiring money is better spent in many other areas (more music for example).
Bi-amping is a different kettle of fish and some speakers (none of Axioms in my tests M22, MP 60 or MP 80) may do better with them but it is a very difficult road to travel with the need for perfectly matching amplifiers as the only surefire way to achieve good results.
The Axioms I use in two fo my four systems simply will not benefit from either bi-wiring or biamping unless your amplifiers are very anemic or you desire enough dynamics and volume to have yourself arrested for making a disturbance in any neigbourhood except a farm house in the middle of nowhere. All the Axioms I have tried and bought are plenty loud to the point of being able to cause your eardrums to distort under the SPL and cause dmage to the one thing that all things stereo cannot be purchased or repaired - your ears!
If you want to improve the sound on the cheap start by getting the best speakers you can afford; ones that your existing pre and amp (if its specs are good and you'ŗe happy with it) can power. Next buy a great source component. Spend a bit on the best CD palyer you have read or heard about in a price range that you can cope with. There is some stunning gear coming from China these days that takes a backseat to no one. You can also throw out all the cheap (or otherwise) analogue RCA interconnects you have and contact someone like Cable Solutions to have sets of perfectly shielded digital coaxial cables made for you. These can be used on all analogue signal runs but do an audibly better job at 1/10 the price I have foolishly spent in the past on exotic cables from MIT, NBS etc.
Good luck and happy listening,
Dr. A. Venkmann
