I have a 5.1 system with 4 Quad L-ite satellites and center channel. The original installation by a pro was a bi-wired (not bi-amped) setup, using metal posts to connect the HF to the LF posts on the back of each speaker. When I moved two of the posts were somehow lost, and when I set the system up myself in the new house those two speakers put out ~ 10% of the volume of the other speakers.

I checked to make sure they're in phase. Just to make sure they hadn't gotten damaged in transit I rigged a bi-wiring setup on the center channel using some extra speaker wire, and viola -- sound returns to normal, though at a cost of looking really fugly. My questions:

1) I've never heard of a speaker requiring bi-wiring to fire properly. What do you think is going wrong here?

2) I'm about to replace the crap the builder installed in my walls with 14/4. Can I simply use the extra pair of wire to accomplish the same bi-wiring configuration (again, understanding that each set must be in phase)? I'd think so, but every article I read about 14/4 says just to use the second pair to power a second speaker, rather than bi-wiring.

Thanks in advance!