Speaker Jumper Cables Revisited

I know there are multiple threads on Audiogon dealing with this topic, but a recent experience with budget speakers was significant enough I wanted to share to see if others have experienced similar results.  

My office system has a pair of Wharfedale Diamond 12.0’s (biwirable) flanking my computer monitor.  They are driven by a laptop computer running JRiver Media Center, an Audioquest Dragonfly Red DAC and a Rega BrioR (Gen 1).  ICs and speaker cables are decent quality Audioquest.  I also have a Monitor Audio subwoofer.  All components are on modest power conditioners and have upgraded power cables.

I asked the salesman when I purchased the Wharfedales if he thought replacing the stock jumpers would improve their sound, and he said “maybe, but I doubt it”.  I have some experience with much older Diamond 8 series speakers, and I experimented with removing the metal plate jumpers and replacing with various home brew and store bought jumpers to some positive effect.  After breaking in the 12.0s, while I generally liked the sound, I can’t help tinkering.  I looked into buying premade jumpers, but name brand jumpers with quality materials are bloody expensive, like quickly approaching the cost of the speakers themselves.  No thanks.

I looked on eBay and found some flat ribbon jumpers that are supposedly silver plated OCC copper with very sturdy looking Gold plated spade connectors.  Very Nordost like, but unbranded.  They were $11 plus change.  Probably not made in Massachusetts, LOL.  At first they sounded hard and brassy at volume.  Undeterred, I let them cook for several weeks at background volume levels and didn’t really pay any attention.  

A month or so after replacing the stock plates with the eBay jumpers, I did some serious listening.  WOW!  I mean REALLY WOW!!  I was hearing what sounded like completely different and better speakers.  All harshness was gone. In near field listening, the soundstage was deeper and more defined both laterally and vertically. Treble had more speed and air, and notes hung in the air for what seemed like the exact right amount of time before disappearing.  Midrange had more bite when called for and was appropriately smooth and mellow when that was in the recording.  Both male and female vocals were more convincing.  Bass is not a big thing with a 4” woofer, but what bass there is was both cleaner and faster.

Adding the eBay jumpers made the modestly priced Diamond 12.0’s sound closer to, and in some aspects better than the speakers in my reference system which cost about six times as much, and in some aspects maybe sound a little better.  It really sounded like I had dropped a much better DAC into the system.

My previous experience with jumping the older Wharfedale Diamonds didn’t prepare me for what I heard from the new Diamond 12.0 with inexpensive but apparently high quality jumpers.  This is a testament to the both the design success of the latest Diamond series from Wharfedale, and to the quality of cabling available on the market now at a low cost, presumably from China.  I do not know if the copper in the cable is really OCC, or the spades are really gold-plated copper instead of brass, but it sure sounds like it.  Oh, and the salesperson was totally wrong, OK?  YMMV

kn