I recently tried the Townshend Isolda speaker cable and I was blown away. I love it. So much I bought a second to Bi-Wire them together as that is how I had my last cable setup.
However, when Bi-Wired, the system breaks down in audio quality. The bass extension is lost, and the music feels like something is missing. Almost like entire frequencies are missing. It’s strange.
I did try both cables separately, to confirm that both cables were good on their own, and they are. But when Bi-Wired, they don’t sound anywhere near as good. For the record, I am using PS Audio BHK mono Amps with Revel f228be speakers.
Does anyone have experience bi-wiring the Townshend Isolda speaker cables? Any ideas why this could happen? Any suggestions? Any science?
Possibly the cables are hooked up with opposite polarities?
Swap the plus and minus of one cable at either the speaker or the amplifier and see how it sounds.
Long time user of Townshend Isolda. Jimmy Hughes recommended it to me about 10 years ago, he’s been using it 30 years. Max Townshend first made it in 1980, he re-engineered a flat cable produced by Monitor Audio in the 1970s. It’s dead quiet and has extraordinarily low inductance, which initially was used to market being able to use in lengths of 30 feet or more, and Max used to point out that it helped because you did not have to use equal lengths. It’s an end game cable for many professionals and consumer users.
You can’t run both cables near each other. They interfere with each other. There is no shielding on these cables. I’m not sure exactly why, but basic principles of electromagnetism could explain why I heard frequency dips. Just basic constructive and deconstruction forces maybe.
I was careful to keep them away from the floor and other cables, especially power cables, but not from themselves. Separating them brought all the sound clarity I was hoping for, and placing near each other again repeated the problem.