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Speaker jumpers and hook up choices Question

For many years now speakers come with 4 terminals for bi amp/bi wiring. research has shown few people do either but it continues. Whe I has in the audio biz it was one set regarless of the speaker and life was good. With 4 terminals it can be an endless choice of jumpers and hook up methods and they all make the speaker sound different. In my case I would use one of three hook ups regardless of jumpers used

1) Cables to the low side . Jumpers feed the high side This make the most sense to me
2) Cable to the high side Jumpers feedn the low side. Not sure why one would do this.
3)Pos cable to the low side and neg to the high side. This one sounds way different then the other two and in most cases better WHAT IS IT DOING?? What is happening when you use this hook up?

Thanks
geph0007

Showing 2 responses by almarg

almarg's avatar
almarg
9,670 posts
 
The diagonal configuration you refer to in no. 3 results in low frequency currents and high frequency currents each having to go through one jumper during their round-trip from the amp to the speaker and back. While when connecting both conductors to either the bottom or the top, as described in nos. 1 and 2, one of those currents would be going through two jumpers, and the other through none.

However, assuming good contact integrity, good quality jumpers, jumpers that are minimal in length, and assuming the equipment is in an equal state of warmup when the different configurations are tried, I have no idea why or if the diagonal configuration would sound significantly different than the other two configurations in most cases.

Regards,
-- Al
almarg's avatar
almarg
9,670 posts
 
Yes, draw it out and I think what I said will become clear. When you do that, keep in mind that current flows in a "complete circuit" from the amplifier to the speaker, then through the speaker, and then back to the amplifier. And keep in mind also that the speaker's crossover network will prevent the high frequency content of the signal from flowing through the low frequency driver(s), and will prevent the low frequency content of the signal from flowing through the high frequency driver(s).

Aside, that is, from frequencies that are in the area of the crossover point between drivers, where high frequency and low frequency drivers will both be reproducing the same frequencies to some degree. How wide a range of frequencies that area encompasses will depend on the slopes of the particular crossover. "Slopes" meaning 6 db/octave or 12 db/octave or 18 db/octave, etc., which describes how sharply the crossover cuts off frequencies that are not near the crossover frequency.

Regards,
-- Al
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