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Jumpers vs bi-wire

Question for the experts: If I run straight cables to my speakers and then use cable jumpers to replace the metal connectors that came with the speakers (mine are set up with a high and low post for the speaker connections), do the cable jumpers need to be the same brand/model as the main cable in order to achieve the same benefits/attributes of the main cable. It seems the answer would be yes, but so few cable makers seem to make jumpers. Am I missing something (would not be the first time). My limited knowledge of such suggests to me that to get the same benefits/attributes to both high and low binding posts, I'd have to bi-wire (or shotgun). Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
vtl
celtic66
1,654 posts
 
You want to stay within the same quality range, but no, the jumpers must not match the speaker cable. Your logic does make sense to a point. Here come the rebuttals........
wires
22 posts
 
My preference has always been, in a bi-wire application, if one connot afford two pair of cables, then the next best thing is a single run and jumpers made of the same speaker cable material. We have and always will provide jumpers at no extra charge for use in this application.
gunbei
2,327 posts
 
I'd been using biwired speaker cables of varying brands for a few years.

Last summer I bought a single run pair of Audience AU24. I'd read they recommended the single run plus jumpers approach for the AU24, so I began using that configuration. I'd been using the AU24 jumpers with them as well.

For the last two weeks, I've been comparing a single run of AU24 versus the same of Ridge Street Audio Poiema. I noticed certain qualities one had that the other didn't, so on a whim I decided to try biwiring with the AU24 going to the tweeters of my ProAc Response 2.5s and the Poiema connected to the woofers.

I was expecting this odd set up might introduce some phasing issues, but what resulted was a very nice sound. This is the first time I'd tried biwiring with different brands of speaker cables and got a result close to what I expected.

Last week I even tried connecting double runs of 47 Labs OTA to each of the negative return leads of my speakers with the Poiema, and got very good results as well.

A few years ago I would have never considered odd experiments like these, but hanging around Viggen so long has opened my mind to some unorthodox and often pleasing audio sonic approaches.
flickkit's avatar
flickkit
22 posts
 
Since Bi-wires originated from a single point. The terminal of your amp. Shouldnt instead of connecting to for example the low freq posts then jumpering to the High but instead connecting in the middle of the jumper be the same as bi-wiring? Picture your amp being the apex of the V with your high and low posts being the ends. now grab the wires at the apex of the "V" slide it towards the speaker Creating a "Y". Essentialy the "Y" is there all along its just that the vertical leg is in the amp hidden from view. Try that experiment ☺
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