HOW CRITICAL ARE JUMPER CABLES

I don't think they are critical as much as the connectors.

Use soft-metal spades or tight fitting bananas.  Avoid rhodium or gold over brass.  The softer the spade the tighter a grip yo are going to get.  The WBT spring loaded spades are highly underrated IMHO.

Ideally they would be the same wire as the speaker wire. I sometime do on on the top and one on the bottom honestly not a big difference. 

Through trial and lots of error, I found that using the same jumpers as your speaker wire are the way to go. They sound every bit as good as going bi-wire to me.

All the best,
Nonoise

News Flash! EVERYTHING MATTERS!!! Even 6” of wire. I have shotgun bi-wire spade cables and I STILL use banana jumpers, and it’s one of the best tweaks I’ve found and won’t listen without the jumpers. It’s crazy at a certain level how EVERYTHING matters in this stupid hobby of ours, but it just does. BTW, hook your cables to the lower binding posts as that’s where the power need is greatest.

To answer your question more directly, yeah it’s probably best to use the same cable for jumpers if you really like your speaker cables. That said, if you have big $$$ cables and it’s really expensive to make jumpers from them, I personally think if you pick cheaper but still good-quality jumpers that exhibit similar characteristics as your cables you’ll probably still be pretty happy and certainly better off than using the crap straps usually included with speakers. My cables are Acoustic Zen and jumpers are Stereovox (now Black Cat), and Chris Sommovigo was actually the guy who introduced me to the concept of using jumpers with shotgun cables and SO glad he did. Ignore jumpers, or anything really, at your peril. Hope this helps, and best of luck.

Hook the speaker cables to the woofers and the jumpers to the high frequency drivers. You can us a higher gauge wire for the jumpers if you like. If you are using 10 gauge on the woofers use 12 gauge for the high frequency drivers. Does any of this make a difference? No, not at all. Listen for yourself. Switch the wires around and experiment. You will not hurt anything. The instruction I gave above is convention and theoretically the right way to do it as the woofers usually demand more current.

This conversation makes me happy I only have single wired speakers. 

Well I see it as an opportunity.  My new speakers are arriving tomorrow (I hope) and I now can try all of the options mentioned here, and make a choice!  

@soix 

Interesting comment. Thanks for sharing that it is even better to use jumpers with a bi-wire cable. May just try that some day.

My 1958 Ford F100 can't live without them.

My 1958 Ford F100 can't live without them.

You beat me to it.

Just bought a Tesla today will never need them again….lol

I use the same materials to add jumpers to a speaker cable as I do in the main part of the cable. Not doing this will hurt the total performance of the cable. However, jumpers have different design consideration then the main part of the speaker cable. My preference is to use the same number of total circular mils of conductor material for both the main and jumper parts of the cable.

There is nothing like run bi-wire cable to speakers if you have a proper set of speakers and amps for the task. The performance will exceed a speaker cable with jumpers by a considerable margin. Here is a link for more information 

Very critical I buy Furutech connectors with screw down wire terminals 

and Neotech Awg12 Teflon 6-9pure copper 6 inches each 

and much better then the rip offs in many $$ companies  it cost me maybe $200 or less , parts connecxion has a 20% offsale  and $15 overnight saver for shipping 

Pretty critical if you’re away from home with a dead battery. 🤣

Using the same speaker cable for jumpers makes sense to me.  In my Tannoy users manual, for single wire mode, it shows amp cables connected to the high frequency drivers with the jumper plate between the high and low frequency drivers.

I use Audioquest Rocket 88 double bi-wire cables that are labeled.  Making the correct connections is a no-brainer.

I agree with "audio-union" about bi-wiring. That made a significant improvement with my 802D's. 

Why do so many speaker companies use those gold plated things as jumpers? Until now I threw them away and used short pieces of speaker wire. Now I have the Kef Reference 5’s and they have the jumpers built in. You turn the knobs on the back. I’m not sure what they’re using, but I probably will try some jumpers on them someday.

JD

They should be as good as the wire inside the speaker, that is to say, it doesn't much matter.

What I have seen is jumper bars that were removed and good jumpers added in their place. Pretty serious upgrade in some cases. I've seen quite a few jumper bars that were gold plated sheet metal. Copper, silver and copper with mill spec silver clad.. All good cable choices. The best I've heard is just solid core copper or silver with no insulation. I suppose an oversize silicone air tube for the ones that freak out about exposed wire... I call it a learning experience for the cleaning lady..

Regards

...always have a set in every car....it's nice to be someone's knight in armor... *g*

@jerryg123 , carry a pair in the frunk, it'll blow someone's socks off to be 'jumped' by a Tesla (but see if that's possible...;)...) *LOL*

Which version? 

I used 50 year old welding leads that H&S retired because of burn marks in the cables casing. The cable was very flexible with a very high strand count of pure copper. The copper was larger than my thumb. I used gator clamps and you could tighten them with a wrench after you clamp on. I’ve seen those cables move several inches when people were trying to jump a heavy load and not charge the batteries a bit before trying.

I learned about soldering jumper cables too. DON’T. I saw a guys service truck burn to the ground. The fire was where his priming fuel and his "jumper cable" connection were. LOL The leads got so hot the solder melted and pored right on the plastic primer container.. Guess what else was in that compartment? The ONLY fire extinguisher. He sure had a clean service truck too. :-) I learned a lot about "Jumper Cables" that day.. It burn both pieces of equipment UP and caused a pretty big grass fire.. He made the news.. million dollar boo boo..

I gave him an A+ at the end of the day, he saved his lunch box..

Regards

Very critical jump on jumpers ASAP!!Upgrade them.

Tannoy supplies jumpers for their higher tier speakers in the event you don't bi wire...last time I checked, Tannoy does not make speaker cables...so, I doubt it is necessary to use the exact same wire as used for the main run of speaker cable. If this is good enough for Tannoy, then it's good enough for me...I'll use their jumpers...although right now, I bi wire with two equal runs of Audioquest Type 4....

@asvjerry Model 3 and it is for the wife. I prefer my Alfa. 

@jerryg123 , I'm down with your preference on that call. *G*

Does a 3 have an 'insane mode', or just a 'somewhat disturbed' setting? *L*

" 'Bot's it to ya? " 🤪

When I used jumpers I used the same as my speaker wires.  However, I upgraded my speaker wires to bi-wire.

I use much higher quality jumpers than speaker wire. And it sounds better than the stock jumpers that came with my Tannoy Turnberrys.

I have also tried every jumper configuration and run speaker wire to the high frequency side first. There’s just more musical content there. But my system does not suffer from lack of low end...and I don’t run subs, so try everything. Every system is different...even the same system in a different room may require a different approach.

High quality jumpers for sure. I use Walker Silver Jumpers. Always connect main speaker wires to the woofer LF first then jump to HF from there. LF needs more power first then HF.  At least that’s what my understanding.

If the jumper cables are well built (as in 99% of HiFi speakers), absolutely nothing! they are NOT critical at all.

You hear a difference, there important.Made my own this summer using aeco banana plugs and neotech 12 gauge teflon wire...i tried mundorf 14 g/s and was detailed,sweet.The stranded neotech won out over solid... just a tad smoother i guess.

My Tannoy manual suggests wiring to the HF side first...but had to try all options and they were right. It is a small difference but the section that gets wired first sees a little more presence in my system at least.

My experience with jumpers is as follows. My current speakers are Vapor Audio Nimbus Blacks with WBT bi-wire posts. My current ("not going anywhere") speaker cables are Tellurium Black Diamonds with bananas at the amp end and spades at the speaker end. Initially, my first foray with bi-wire speakers were the Legacy Aeris towers with bi-wired posts. With the Aeris, my speaker wires were the Cerious Graphene Extremes and Cerious Graphene Extreme banana/spade jumpers which with what I felt were good results having nothing to compare the jumpers against. Sold the Legacy's, sold the Graphene speaker cables after acquiring the Black Diamonds, kept the graphene jumpers to use on the Nimbus. Of course, "upgraditis" and curiosity bested me to try a pair of Analysis Plus Big Silver Oval with spade/bananas. Wow, the difference was startling...the Analysis Plus jumpers clouded the sound and crushed dynamics. Yanked that junk out and back in went the Cerious jumpers and all was well... until...a pair of "as new" Tellurium Black Diamond spade/banana jumpers popped up for sale of which I jumped on them like a banshee monkey in heat! I can attest that this change absolutely elevated the level the performance across the board exponentially and although I have been tempted since to try other jumpers I have not bothered as my sensibilities convinced me that there is that magic synergy happening with matching the same brand and model of speaker wires and jumpers....

Here are my thoughts on bi-wiring.  I guess if you are going to do it, use the same type of cabling that you have from the amp/amps. From there, you now have to deal with what type of connectors (or lack of) and be ready for all the opinions that one brand/type/termination sounds better.  Use good copper and make sure all the connections are tight/secure.

Over my years, I have not seen any discernible differences other than long ago running custom wiring from Chris VenHaus.  True bi-wire runs of silver (mid/highs) and OCC copper (bass) to my 802Ds from a Levinson amp.   That was several years ago and with much better ears.  Still trying to make myself believe is actually sounded better...

Do you have the ability to modify your speaker and internally connect the wires to one binding post.  This way you can pick your speaker cable of choice and not have to worry about jumpers?

If not, then I would look at bi-amping.  Although, probably not a topic the OP wants to pursue.

Still love the power cord analogy and how it pertains to speaker jumpers.  How does the last 6'/6" really make a difference.  I guess that is why we love/hate this crazy hobby.

So any benefit to getting jumpers and not bi-wiring? 

Very important if your battery dieds....give me a boost....lol

There are so many old fogeys on this board, I swear…I can hear my dad sometimes. You boomers just have the best sense of humor.

My experience about jumpers is with Monitor Audio silver 6 and Magneplanar LRS.In both cases, the results were obvious. Much better clarity in the mid to high treble regions, more air, better attack and decays, less grain in the sound, I made a pair of jumper with Duelund gauge 12 wire and Mundorf Connector BFA Beryllium Copper Banana Plug, I also tried Neotech gauge 12 solid core wire with Mundorf Connector with similar results.  Very happy results globally and not expensive at all.

I compared silver wire jumpers to copper wire jumpers recently. They make a difference. The silver jumpers gave me beautiful detail but stole dynamics on drums. The difference was obvious. 

Let’s do a contest. We’ll buy eight sets of jumpers-- from good to crazy expensive. Whoever can rank them by their price wins, let’s say, $5,000 for the prize, 10 people, $1,000 buy in per participant. Here’s my bet; nobody wins because the price of jumpers has nothing to do with the sound of jumpers beyond a certain quality of build and materials-- and in this test we’ll start with well made quality jumpers in the $50 range and go up from there. Jumpers, are, for the most part, above maybe $100, a laughable rip-off. I have Genesis III’s with dual Genesis Servo subs BTW. The speakers use bi-wire posts and came with some pretty run of the mill jumpers. Changing them out with a $500 pair (can’t recall the brand) did nada. I never make snap decisions with respect to changes made to my system-- I live with the changes for a while to let whatever that change is "settle in", and for my ears to learn to hear what, if any, improvement the change seems to have made. Mega-bucks jumpers are just more bling IMO, and never underestimate the placebo effect-- it is always there.

+1 wesheadley! A voice of reason amid the subjective blather from the wire-obsessed.

Actually, what would actually be helpful is if someone would buy a series of increasingly expensive jumpers, take good notes on the performance of each, and report back. That is instead of assertions with little or no experience, based on nothing.

Anyone here tried the Nordost Oden gold jumpers at 49K a set. Yep 49K for jumpers. 😂

All caps critical.

@tmaker great stocking stuffer for Christmas 🎄🎄🎄

I agree. Where do I send them. 😎

Nordost Oden gold jumpers at 49K a set

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I bought 6 sets, they had none in stock they were flying off the shelf. :-) sure they were.

NOW, Back to reality...

The best on the planet 50.00 USD or make your own for 5-20.00 or so..

Regards

If the wire guage of jumpers is so important, wouldn't the same apply to fuses? Based on cable theory the thin fuse wire would act like a blockage in a water hose, slowing the flow.

If? Good one.

Personally, I never drive anywhere in winter without jumper cables in the trunk. 

I have tried a lot of home brew and cheap manufactured versions of jumpers on several speakers.  I have also experimented with attaching single run wires to different terminals on the speaker:  1) different jumpers sound different.  2) price is irrelevant. 3) what sounds best depends on your amp, speakers and cables.

So no one can tell you what will sound best in your system.  I suggest starting with decent bulk cable and cut short lengths with bare wire ends and adjust configurations to see how that sounds.