Speaker cables connect the outputs of the power amplifier or the amplifier section of the receiver to the speaker. These cables carry the high-powered electrical currents required to move the internal components of the speaker (the magnets that move the drivers).
You need one pair of speaker cables for each speaker in your home theater (except the subwoofer, if it’s an active system that uses an analog audio interconnect cable). Some expensive speaker systems can use two pairs of speaker wires per speaker. These systems are either biwired or biamped:
- Biwired: Two sets of speaker wire connect to the same output on the receiver or power amplifier, and you plug them into two sets of terminals on the speaker itself. In most cases, this setup is not worth the expense of the extra set of speaker cables.
- Biamped: The speaker uses two separate amplifiers — one for the low-frequency drivers and one for the high-frequency drivers.
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