Jumpers - how long is long enough

I have had issues at times in the past with jumpers being too short therefore creating problems when installing them and/or removing them. With that said, in my particular situation with a variety of speakers I own 12" (30.48 cm) works very will.

If in fact the length of the jumpers makes an audible difference in a given system, I would expect the difference to depend on the impedance of the speakers (especially the impedance at high frequencies), and on whether the cables from the amp are connected to the high frequency terminals, or to the low frequency terminals, or in a diagonal configuration (i.e., one wire to high and one wire to low). And, given the relatively long lengths that were mentioned, on whether or not the two jumpers are twisted together.

For example, the combined inductance of 50 cm and 70 cm conductors of typical gauge, that are not closely spaced such as by twisting, will result in an inductive reactance of around 0.2 ohms at 20 kHz. Some electrostatic speakers, such as many Martin-Logan models, have impedances of 0.4 or 0.5 ohms at 20 kHz. If the speaker cables are connected to the bass terminals on the speakers high frequency currents will be conducted by the jumpers, and in that situation the numbers suggest that a bit of rolloff and phase shifting will occur in the upper treble region.

If the speaker cables are connected to the high frequency terminals in that situation, though, or if the jumpers are twisted together, those effects will be minimized or eliminated and signal transmission to the high frequency section of the speaker will become more accurate (while the inductance of the jumpers won’t affect the low frequency currents they would be conducting). Of course, that improvement in accuracy may or may not be preferable from a subjective standpoint, depending on the speakers, the room, the rest of the system, the source material, and the listener.

As is usual in audio, it depends :-)

Best regards,
-- Al

I strongly suspect direction of the jumper cable is more important than the length, all other things being equal.

If the manufacturer of your speakers allows for bi-wiring you should remove the jumpers and bi-wire them. They will probably sound better, I know mine do.

Forgot to mention that the two wires were separated by lots of space - they were not twisted or joined together.

So it seems that the consensus so far is... 
- the length of wires used for jumpers can have some impact on sound quality, depending on speaker type & design and the wire used. 
- It may be prudent for those people that are using jumpers on their bi-wire speakers to try different lengths of wire to see what sounds best on their speakers
- Direction of the wire can affect sound quality

Many Thanks for the feedback - keep it coming

Cheers

The jumpers that I use for my JBL 4319s are about 7", tip of spade to tip of spade, or about 17.78cm., and they work fine, and better than the stock jumpers.

All then best,
Nonoise

Any thoughts on solid vs stranded?

A while back I used some fairly sturdy copper foil.

I haven't done this for a long time because I bi-wire most of the time.

I prefer the sound of solid over stranded in my cabling. If you liked the sound of the sturdy copper foil, then stay with solid.

All the best,
Nonoise

Well my experience has been 
Every time I tried to jumper
She said it wasn't long enough
Which is such a bummer...

Yes but remember geoff said its more important that it be going in the right.... oh never mind.

Just imagine a 3 way system with 3 sets of terminals per cabinet
More cables than a V12, it would have to sound better than a Ferrari

millercarbon
Yes, but remember geoff said its more important that it be going in the right.... oh never mind.

>>>>>Queue Dueling Banjos. 😳

I heard some big ol’ tri-amped Koss Model 1 electrostatic speakers once upon a time driven by three Tube amplifiers. Pretty neat, pretty cool.