Speaker wiring question

I'm guessing it doesn't matter if the bridging brackets are attached. Just wondering why you would want to do that?

Keep connections as designed on bottom end & you will get much better performance if you swap out those horrible jumper bars for some real cable jumpers...

Not much of a difference. :) Just don't cross the streams.

I would be curious to see if anyone ha measured the resistance (etc) across stock bridge bars compared to jumpers.

Also, for my own benefit, is there any downside to making jumpers out of the same speaker wire I am using? In other words, for my low end system I bought 100% copper, low oxygen 12 awg speaker wire. I guess the questions are 1) Would it hurt anything to use it as a jumper? 2) Is there any chance it would improve anything (in low end Polk Audio 3 way towers)?

Thanks for the replies.  Freediver:  they are actually cable jumpers and not brackets.  Why do you think I would get much better performance if I connected to the bottom (low end) just curious.  All the illustrations for non biwiring do show connections being made on the bottom.  just wondering if there is a sonic difference or to  just to keep things uniform.  Would it then matter if you connected to the high end instead? I am going to experiment but don't think I'll be able to hook things up again for a few days

I tried what I mentioned above. Made two pairs of jumpers out of the same speaker wire I'm using for the speakers, good quality, good size. Put banana connectors on one end for the upper posts. Just used bare wire for the bottom posts. Will get some set screw spades for the bottom posts when I get a chance (hard to find them cheap the way you can bananas).

Did it make a difference? Broader sound stage, brighter roomier highs, tighter bass. Really? I don't know. Probably not. I'm the type of guy that would swear that my car runs better after I wax it. ;-)

So, just wondering, did you try them both ways?

I’m wondering why anyone uses jumpers in most cases.  Oft the wire can be threaded through the LF post to the HF post and screwed down accomplishing the same function as the dreaded brackets supplied.  Same wire type, problem solved.

Still just wondering if you're not biwiring does it make a difference if you're using the low or high posts?

@Metman, what you asked about in your initial post is referred to as a diagonal connection configuration. In various past threads here **some** members have reported finding that configuration to be preferable to connecting both wires to the low frequency posts, and also to be preferable to connecting both wires to the high frequency posts. Others have found that not to be the case.

If it makes any difference at all in a particular application (which it very well may not, IMO), the only way to find out is to compare the different possibilities in that particular application.

Also, fwiw, from a technical standpoint the way to look at it is as follows (although what follows won’t help to predict which alternative you would find to be preferable):

1) Connecting both wires to the low frequency terminals routes the high frequency content of the audio through two jumpers and the low frequency content through no jumpers.

2) Connecting both wires to the high frequency terminals routes the low frequency content of the audio through two jumpers and the high frequency content through no jumpers.

3) Connecting the wires in a diagonal configuration routes low frequencies through one jumper and high frequencies through one jumper.

Regards,
-- Al

^^^ I hate to burst your bubble but electricity doesn’t work that way...FULL RANGE signal content travels together but are separated in the crossover..The bottom posts feed FULL RANGE to the bass portion of crossover & vice versa the top posts,filtering the signal content in the crossover to continue it’s travels through the crossover to the drivers..Bi wiring simply removes a small portion of crossover from the equation..

@Freediver, what I said is correct.

If the two sets of terminals are connected by jumpers, and let’s say the + wire from the amp is connected to the HF (high frequency) + terminal and the - wire from the amp is connected to the LF (low frequency) - terminal, current flowing to the speaker in the + wire will enter the HF section of the speaker directly from the + terminal of the HF section, but will enter the LF section of the speaker after traveling through a jumper. Current will return to the amplifier from the LF section of the speaker directly from the - terminal of the LF section, but will return to the amplifier from the HF section of the speaker after traveling through the other jumper.

In between the terminals that current enters and leaves each section of the speaker, the high frequency content of the signal and the low frequency content of the signal will be filtered by the crossover circuits. The result will be exactly what I said: Connecting the wires in a diagonal configuration will result in low frequencies being routed through one jumper (in this case the one connecting the two + terminals together), and high frequencies will also be routed through one jumper (in this case the one connecting the two - terminals together).

If that isn’t clear, I suggest that you draw it out on a piece of paper, for a simple two-way speaker which has an inductor in series with the woofer and a capacitor in series with the tweeter, and which has a pair of terminals for each section of the speaker.

In doing so, ***keep in mind that current is the the same at all points in a series circuit.*** And in that situation the + and - speaker wires coming from the amplifier are connected to two series circuits in the speaker: One series circuit between a + terminal of the speaker, the HF section within the speaker, and a - terminal of the speaker, with a single jumper being included in that path; another series circuit between a + terminal of the speaker, the LF section within the speaker, and a - terminal of the speaker, also with a single jumper being included in that path. In the series circuit which includes the HF section of the speaker (including the one jumper which is in that path) low frequency currents will not be present, and in the series circuit which includes the LF section of the speaker (including the one jumper which is in that path) high frequency currents will not be present.

A similar analysis can be performed for the situations in which the + and - speaker wires are both connected to the speaker’s LF terminals, and in which the + and - speaker wires are both connected to the speaker’s HF terminals. The results being what I stated in my previous post for those configurations.

Regards,

-- Al

" Still just wondering if you're not biwiring does it make a difference if you're using the low or high posts?"

No.  It does not matter.  They are electrically identical.  I will add, that unless you just enjoy spending money on wire, there is no reason to bi-wire either as that configuration is also electrically identical to a single pair with jumpers.

not true
reflected impedence is part of the magic of biwire...

the tweeter and crossover have a high impedence at low frequencies, hence flow to woofer
reverse that for woofer as it has higher impedence at higher frequency..

so another way to think about it is the path of least resistance is reflected all the way back to the amplifier terminals......

and

the low frequency signal creates a large field which modulates the HF wire if adjacent....so you need an external biwire configuration to get all of tge advantages.....

+1 tomic601

I’m sure Nordost has no idea what they’re talking about but I use the positive leg to the bottom and negative to the top and then jumpers. On my system it does make a difference.

i don’t use Nordost speaker wires but I have WyWires and Clear Day and both brands I get the same results. Only using the WyWires currently with their jumpers too.

Only way to know is try it and hear what works for you. If you don’t hear a difference than life is probably better for you maybe. I tried all three methods as opposed to questioning why it would make a difference. I find it does but as always YMMV.

https://nordost.com/downloads/NorseJumperinstructions.pdf

Both the speakers and integrated were recently purchased (used) and I listened for a couple of hours again today this time connected to the low posts and things did  sound better but I also used different Interconnects and am wondering if that was the reason.  I'll continue to experiment and may give biwiring a shot down the road as well 

I would like to ask you proponents of bi wiring a question.  At what point along the run of speaker wire would jumping across to a second pair of wires constitute "bi wiring"?  Could I tap into the original pair at the mid way point, jump across to a second pair of speaker wires and continue on the the speaker terminals?  Would that be "bi wiring"?  At what point must a second pair of wires be introduced to be considered bi wiring, thus achieving superior sound?   

@metman :

"but I also used different Interconnects and am wondering if that was the reason."

Never change more than one variable at a time!

I wanted to use the same ones I used the previous time which happened to come with the integrated I just purchased ( Denon pma 2000 IVR - pretty impressive unit incidentally) but forgot where I put them and used my Morrow IC instead   They'll turn up and  Like I said I'll continue to experiment.  The speakers are Platinum Audio reference one's and very impressed thus far with these as well