Part of the thrill of being an audio enthusiast is the never-ending journey for improved sound. Once you catch the “bug” and put together a decent home audio system or home theater system, the next step is to tweak and experiment.

If you’re at this point, you may have come across the terms “bi-wiring” and “bi-amping”. Let’s talk about what each of these means and how they may help to improve the sound of your audio system.

Both of these terms refer to how you connect to your speakers, and to do either one you will need speakers that allow you to connect them up this way. To determine whether or not your speakers can be bi-wired or bi-amped, take a look at the back of your speakers where the speaker wires connect. If you see only one positive and one negative connection (usually red and black), your speakers are not capable of either one.

If, however, you see two sets of connections, you have speakers that can be bi-amped or bi-wired. Normally these types of connections have “jumpers” (also called "bridges") that connect the two positive terminals and the two negative terminals. If your speakers are set up this way, it’s worth testing it out. The speaker manufacturer went out of their way to build this capability into the speaker, so we recommend at least giving this upgrade a try.