dinov, How many hours is needed to break in or burnin the silver jumper ?
HOW CRITICAL ARE JUMPER CABLES
When using jumper cables instead of biwire speaker cables, do the jumpers need to be as good a quality or better than the actual quality of the speaker wires? The jumpers need to be 6” to 9” long. Also is it better to hook the main speaker wires to the low end and then run the jumpers to the high end or visa versa?
It depends on how revealing your system is and whether you're simply jumping biwire speaker binding posts. But for sure, if it has stamped crap metal jumpers you should hear a big improvement
I have Emerald Physics 3.4s with outboard XOs. They include some of the cheapest jumpers, which really detracts from the 3.4s hidden potential. The included jumpers are also short, which means people are leaving the XOs on the speaker bases, which vibrate like crazy. I replaced them with high quality 2ft jumpers so I could get the XOs off the bases. The improvement for a couple hundred dollars is/was... jaw dropping. These speakers deserve better |
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. |
@tmaker great stocking stuffer for Christmas 🎄🎄🎄 |
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. |
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. |
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.
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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.... |
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. |
@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? " 🤪 |
@asvjerry Model 3 and it is for the wife. I prefer my Alfa. |
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.... |
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 |
...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? |
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 |
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 |
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 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. |
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. |
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. |