They make a lot of difference, I have tried many on my biwire speakers. It is just too expensive and inconvenient to use 2 runs of Golden Reference. The Cardas jumpers have worked best all round but silver jumpers have a different sound that you might like better. Tried the anti cable jumpers but didn't get the results I wanted, others apparently have. Most supplied jumpers are not of great quality so experiment. Right now I an taking a break with my Mini Utopias, which are single wire. You can get short lengths of high quality copper and silver wire without breaking the bank, try it out. |
Here is an oversimplified overview. Many better quality speakers have two inputs (or more). Typically the lower input is for the woofer and the upper is for the midrange and tweeter drivers. In these cases the crossover sections are not electrically connected to each other so individual amplifiers can power the different driver sections. This opens up a number of possibilities such as using a higher powered solid state amp on the woofers and perhaps a vacuum tube amp on the midrange and tweeters section. Using two stereo amplifiers and separate wires to the speaker sections is what is referred to as "bi-amping". Electronic crossovers can be used but are not required since the passive crossovers are still intact inside the speakers. If you choose to use a single amplifier, you could biwire which is simply running two sets of wires to the individual speaker sections and connecting the other ends of the wires to the single amplifier. The reason for using jumpers is simply that you have a single amplifier and a standard set of speaker cables that will only connect to one of the input sections. You use a jumper to connect the two sections together. There are reasons (advantages and disadvantages) for using different configurations. I hope my explanation made sense. Feel free to e-mail if you need any clarification.
Brad
e-mail: glassaudio@comcast.net |
Use jumpers made with the same material as your main cables and enjoy the music. |
Thanks for the clear explaination, I'm thinking of jumper cable for the same reason, at the moment my spendors are powered by the Plinius 8200mk2 intergrated. i've seen this guy(whom i bought my plinius from) biwire from Plinius to his speakers, it had quite a full sound but it didn't "wow" me though.
I've been trying to read up about jumper cables, there are people who can hear improvement, and some said jumper cables strengthen certain area and compromise the other. i don't know I'll probably check up if any seller does home trial, hence i get to experiment.
thanks |
Hi Karmatogral -
I have Spendor S6e's and changed out the copper jumper platethat comes with the speaker, with a soundstring jumper cable...it made a huge difference.
Treble was much more detailed and seemed to even out the tonal balance of the entire presentation. |
The speakers I use are the Spendor SP -1/2Es. I also use the Mapleshade jumpers, which work well and are cheap. I would not confine myself to the same brand or material necessarily , the jumpers have a different job to do than the main cables. |
Stanwal,Can you explain what the different job is that the jumpers do? I am at a loss over that statement. Don't the jumpers continue the signal path to both x-overs in the speaker? Am I missing something here? |
The main cables carry the full signal to the woofer terminal. The jumpers transfer the mid and high signal to those units.The two crossovers are separate, hence the need for the jumpers. So since the bass signal will be removed by the crossover for the upper units the jumpers do not have to preform well in the bass area. It is their performance in the upper frequency area that is critical. In general terms this means that they can be of smaller gauge and lighter weight than the main cable which has to excel in all frequencies. My Cardas jumpers are a fraction of the size of the Golden Reference main cables and cost $120 as opposed to $2400. Since the main cables connect directly to the woofer terminals the jumpers will have no effect on bass performance. It is , of course, possible to connect the main cables to the upper drivers but if high power is being transferred from the amp the other is usual preferred. In that case the jumpers would be transferring the low frequency signal: the high frequency would be carried also but would be filtered out by the crossover and therefore irrelevant. In neither case do the jumpers act on BOTH crossovers, it is either/or. |
Karmatogdral, Re your OP, The jumpers transfer/conduct the signal to the other section of the x/o. Among the more common metals, silver is the best conductor then copper then somewhere down the line brass. Magnepan even uses steel. They all conduct. These distances are very short, a matter of inches or less, which is why these companies use them. I'd love to see someone try and market an 8 foot pair of steel or brass speaker cables :-)
I would definitely try something made of silver or copper if only because it is a better conductor than brass. Silver may be too honest but who knows. When you do experiment, try the main cable hooked up to one set of post, then the other. Let your ears be the judge. Good luck. |
Homegrown Audio Co. sells both all silver and a silver/copper hybrid jumper cable with a 30 day trial period. http://www.homegrownaudio.com/categories/Speaker-Jumpers/ |
Yes use them when my BMW does not start. |
Karmatogdral,
If you own bi-wire speakers you basically have 2 ways to wire them, bi-wire cables or single runs with jumper. Experimentation should dictate which way you go for best sound. Also, you might discuss this subject with the speaker manufacturer to see if they have suggestions or recommendations.
One thing for sure though, the manufacturer supplied jumper plates are generally NOT the way to go. |
12-24-11: Rja
Karmatogdral,
If you own bi-wire speakers you basically have 2 ways to wire them, bi-wire cables or single runs with jumper. Experimentation should dictate which way you go for best sound. Also, you might discuss this subject with the speaker manufacturer to see if they have suggestions or recommendations.
One thing for sure though, the manufacturer supplied jumper plates are generally NOT the way to go.
Rja (Threads | Answers | This Thread) There are 3 ways ... don't forget 2 single runs. Depending on the SC, speakers ... 1 of the 3 ways will work best. Currently I'm using 2 single runs and the improvements over jumpers and bi-wire SC are tremendous. |
I use 2 single runs but in a way I consider it bi-wiring, just that the amp end pairs are not actually physically connected.
So I guess you could then say 4 ways to wire bi-wire speakers: single runs with jumpers, internal bi-wire, external bi-wire, multiple single runs (8 individual wires-4 per side). |
I use JPS Aluminata Speaker jumpers. They seem to work well with my speaker cables. Make sure you try both connections with your speaker cables. My system sounded better with the speaker cables on the treble side and the jumpers going to the bass side. It seems to make a difference on my speakers. |
