In the case of the Canare 4S11 cable, it has 4 separate 14ga conductors running through the single cable, so you can use it as a single bi-wire, one conductor for each speaker terminal. When used shotgun, you use 2 conductors (11ga equivalent) twisted together at the end for each speaker terminal, and 4 condutors at the amp end. Its a lot of wire to connect when all you have are screw terminals like I do on my old Dynaco. I ended up not doing shotgun there because of it.