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Do not use stock jumpers

I've been using biwire Cardas Golden Ref with my Silverline Sonatina II's for some time now and very happy. Recently out of curiousity I've been trying Audience AU24, single wire, but I did not have the jumper so I was using the speaker's stock jumper. It sounded great, very refined and focused with great bass, but perhaps a bit weak in the lower mids.

Last night my banana-terminated AU24 jumpers arrived and I plugged them in after doing some testing with the stock jumpers. WOW. The sound is practically unrecognizable. Fully fleshed out lower mids and far bigger soundstage, more bounce (it had not been short of bounce), just awesome.

I had NOT been feeling that jumpers would make that big a difference. Heck, I did not feel that there was that big a difference to make.

Several years ago when I had Spendor FL9's I remember now experimenting with jumpers and feeling that it also made a big difference. (I had forgotton about this since I'd been biwiring so long.)

Anyway, Audience AU24 speaker cables with AU24 jumpers is stunning combination.

And, well, even that those stock jumper look so beautiful, I remain shocked at how much sound they were holding back. I still can't figure how a piece of metal or cable that short can make such a huge difference.

If you are thinking about experimenting with upgraded jumpers, I say, stop thinking and do it. (and no, I don't have any connection to anyone selling jumpers, or Audience cables! If there are people out there getting rich selling jumpers, I sure don't know them..).

This is just a heads-up from a fellow hobbiest. My experience leads me to believe that it is well worthwhile to experiment with replacing the stock jumpers, because the stock jumpers might be holding you back a lot more than you think.

Art
artmaltman

Showing 6 responses by artmaltman

artmaltman OP
769 posts
 
Twist my arm! Ok, Cary SLI-80 in triode mode with Svetlana EL'34's, Silverline Sonatina II, Cary 303/100 cdp, Basis 2001 / Rega RB300 modified / Van Den Hull Frog, EAR 834p chrome modified, assorted isolation devices, and a mix of Cardas Golden Ref, Quattrofil and AU24 interconnects. Oh year, REL Strata III.

I used to have $30k plus used system with CJ monoblocks etc, in recent years I've been playing this game to see how much can I shrink my system and still get extremely high quality sound. I think I'm pretty close to limit. Might try an SET integrated going forward, but I'm basicly real happy with this setup.

--a
artmaltman OP
769 posts
 
The stock jumpers on my Silverline Sonatina II's looked superb. To look at them you would have tremendous confidence in their sound. Alas, the switch to Audience AU24 jumpers hosed that theory....
artmaltman OP
769 posts
 
OK, one more thing. I'm getting better results jumpering my Silverline Sonatina II's from high to low, rather than from low to high. This is the opposite of the results I got when jumpering my Spendor FL9's. Go figure.
artmaltman OP
769 posts
 
Hey Eldartford, no argument over my being nuts, but you really ought to experiment with jumpering high to low vs low to high. No question that it sounds very different, at least on the speakers I've tried. (It's how much we care about the difference that makes us all nuts!)
artmaltman OP
769 posts
 
On my speakers, biwiring sounded extremely different tonally than jumpering low to high. Others noticed this too. However, it sounded very similar tonally to jumpering high to low, with the single wire sounding more focused, and the biwire seeming to flow a bit more freely in the bass. The difference between this latter two was small enough that I decided to stick with single wire jumpering high to low.

My results testing with my old Spendor FL9's were very different though and I preferred biwire at that time (AP Oval 9's).

On the Audience site there is a pointer to a discussion that suggests that the sonic "benefits" due to biwiring are really a form of phase incoherence (I think I got that right) rather than an actual improvement in accuracy; even that it might sound more exciting it's allegedly less accurate.

So what do we do, select the one we like that sounds better or the more theoretically correct one?

As for technical explanations, I'm the wrong person. I do work hard to make my own observations before comparing notes with others, so as to avoid being influenced.

And I am very happy with AU24, single wire, jumpered high to low.

Art
artmaltman OP
769 posts
 
Yep, I was referring to Audience's "AU24", their top of the line speaker cable. Sorry that I was not more specific. It is copper, and I don't know the gauge. It's a thin cable but sounds like a big cable, I don't know how they do it.
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