Change the sound color with different jumper materials, have you ever tried using solid core copper silver vs multi strand gauge, to see if the high frequencies improve? Currently my speaker wires are plugged into the HF with the multi-strand jumper and gauge going to the LF. Have you ever tried connecting the speaker wires to the LF terminals and using a solid core copper/silver jumper to the HF. What were your results?
Now, I can hear the singer breathing, but before, it was as if inside the loudspeaker, the fluidity of the music was fighting, because of the bad connection of the loudspeaker and jumper wires. Now it's so much more alive, my moderately deaf ear is able to appreciate the music, there are so many details that stand out now. It really is another musical world.
The is precisely why I suggested in my previous post eliminating the need for jumper cables by going inside the speaker and attaching the base wires to the high frequency binding posts. Jumper wires always degrade the sound due to the extra connections.
@audiosens- I have tied a few different jumper recipes and also exchanged emails with a fellow DIYer in Europe, who performed even more extensive tests. Here's what I settled on...
the jumpers are 20" long - that was the optimum length he believed provided the best sound
the jumpers are made from 2 x 18 gauge solid UP-OCC copper wire - you can use UP-OCC silver, but it is NOT a night and day difference - at least on my system
each wire strand is in its own oversized Teflon tube
the internal diameter of the tube is 25% larger than the outside diemeter of the wire
this basically provides about 95% air gap around the wire, which minimizes the value of Dielectric Constant to a value very close to that of AIR
this improves greatly the clarity and details
the two wires are twisted together - one twist every 3"-4"
they attach to the speakers using KLE Innovations Banana plugs
I have tried other connectors (banana and spade) and bare wire connections and these banana plugs outperformed each method by a considerable margin.
I get my UP-OCC hookup wire and other supplies from Parts Connexion
If interested - I also build my own DIY speaker cables - the construction details can be found here
helmholtzsoul, Now, I can hear the singer breathing, but before, it was as if inside the loudspeaker, the fluidity of the music was fighting, because of the bad connection of the loudspeaker and jumper wires. Now it's so much more alive, my moderately deaf ear is able to appreciate the music, there are so many details that stand out now. It really is another musical world.
@helmholtzsoul : connecting the jumpers diagonally will invert the HF driver phase with respect to the LF/woofer. Bad idea, contrary to the speaker designer's choice!
jason if I inferred swapping or inverting the wires, I certainly didn't mean to. I simply meant try the speaker cables in different positions but keep them phase correct.
top left and bottom right. THEN bottom left and top right for the speaker cable hook up..
Sounds funny but if you hook the wires up backwards to an XO with simple 6 or 12db slopes, it's not just the drivers that are moving the wrong direction, so is the AC signal. The signal hits a woofer backwards at full frequency, then exits to the inductor. The other way around it acts as a 6db first order LP filter.
Not all cable is equal. That little double UP OCC silver/copper/silicone jumper is a real eye opener. If you actually want to have some made they are about 30-100 dollars depending on the quality of the terminal ends and if you have a buddy with a conditioner. UP-OCC copper/silver ribbons are a good looking way to go also with super high detail.
Of all the people I hang with only ONE buys expensive cabling. We all have the best at a fraction of the cost.
williewonka's helix don't even bother looking further. If you can't make that cable sound good, get your ears fixed, or just give your money away and keep the helix.
digsmithd, Zavinos are ~400$ copper-silver. Anti cable level 5 are ~200$ gold-silver. May be it is because the lenght is 260 mm for the Zavinos, instead of 150 mm for the Level 5 ? Any one tried the Level 5 Jumper from Anti cable ?
I tried both neotech solid and stranded 12 gauge.I wanted to like the solid but stranded just was smoother...in my system.Mundorf was recommended to me and was nice sounding...but ultimately went with copper.Ultimately zavfinos were the winners over my efforts.
@helmholtzsoul:connecting the jumpers diagonally will invert the HF driver phase with respect to the LF/woofer. Bad idea, contrary to the speaker designer's choice!
Take two pieces of wire, check the way they were pushed through the extrusion die. Twist 12-14" of # 18 or 16 UP OCC SC copper with .99999 UP OCC Silver. 4-5 twist per inch Clockwise. Put the 2 in an air tube. Twist 8" of the two tubes. Zip-Ty to hold.
Kitty corner the - + from bottom left to top right. Remember the direction the wire went through the dies and that is the direction of the arrow for reference. Mark the outside of the air tube. Find someone to condition your new cables. You just built the best jumpers you can if your going to go that route. 1-200 hours and you can swap the position where you want. Once you make up your mind, find a good enhancer and treat the ends. Tighten everything and leave it. It only gets better with time.
On some Von Schweikert speakers the recommendation was to run the speaker cables to the high frequency, and then jumpers to the low frequency.
It sounded a lot better that way on those speakers.
Alternately if you are not bi-wiring, eliminating the jumpers by opening up the speakers and piggybacking the low frequency wires to the high frequency binding posts on the inside of the speaker will give you the best results. All you need to do is take a photo before you do it so you have a record if you want to reverse it.
On a pair of Tannoy Canterbury SE’s we tried all options - bi-amping, bi-wiring and single wiring and on those speakers single wiring with the low and high frequency piggy backed inside the speakers to eliminate the need for jumpers was by far the best sounding option.
carlsbad, I just try, and there is much more presence from the music, by at least 10% bass-mid-highs, also with better details. Next, I would probably try a new Jumper, made from solid Copper with Silver. But for now, its like a realy good upgrade from my system, thank you for your relevant observations. You were right, my big speaker cable is now at there best feeding the LF (and mid), the Jumper complete the HF with better expressions. Thank's again !
So are you saying that your speaker cables are plugged into the HF posts? If so, the jumpers aren't in the signal path for the part ot the speaker than makes 90% of the "color".
Interesting concept. I know that different materials used as footers can make a difference. And I bet the jumper wire material would have the same effect. But I haven't tried it.......yet.
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