Changing standard speaker links

[Blacksabbath25]

How meany on here bother changing speaker links for speaker cable links and do you think it's worth the time and effort of making your own or buying some ?

whats wrong with the standard links that the manufacturer puts on the speakers why do they not bother with speaker cable links instead of the gold links .

 

[ellisdj]

How meany on here bother changing speaker links for speaker cable links and do you think it's worth the time and effort of making your own or buying some ?

whats wrong with the standard links that the manufacturer puts on the speakers why do they not bother with speaker cable links instead of the gold links  .

I change them every time

 

[jonathanRD]

If you have a really expensive system, then you shouldn't have to, even if you have very good hearing.

And with lesser systems, surely you can't tell the difference?

Come on really? *smile*

 

[nopiano]

It's not something I've ever done. With my old speakers, they were bi-wired with a dedicated bi-wire speaker loom, tough I've reinstated the links pending their sale.

The new ones can be tri-amped or -wired, but I demoed them happily using the standard links, and so that's how I'm running them. The ATC forum is very un-nerdy, perhaps as you'd expect given their studio leanings. So, nobody debates which terminals should take precedence, or using jumpers made from your speaker cable. The solution to any issues with the passive models like mine seems to be 'upgrade to the actives!' However, I expect curiosity will get the better of me someday, and now I'm using modest Van Damme 4mm OFC it's an affordable experiment!

I like KEF's solution with little taps to turn, making or breaking the internal link. The little metal plates always seem a bit flaky by contrast.

 

[stereoman]

How meany on here bother changing speaker links for speaker cable links and do you think it's worth the time and effort of making your own or buying some ?

whats wrong with the standard links that the manufacturer puts on the speakers why do they not bother with speaker cable links instead of the gold links .

New interconnects, speaker cables - yes. Links - I would not bother. I do not think I have ever seen any recommendation from any serious loudspeaker manufacturer who apart from good speaker cable and interconnect recommendations would mention proper cable jumpers instead of their factory links. Besides, cable jumpers look kinda "ugly".

 

[Blacksabbath25]

I have some old atlas speaker cable kicking around and thought I would give a try it's free

I have looked around the internet on the subject and most people have heard a great improvement by taking the gold links out and using speaker cables to make the link instead .

i do not want to ruin my speakers doing it but would of thought at £2000 for a set of speakers speaker wire would not make a lot of difference but read on a number of sites people believe this is a very good upgrade ?

 

[seemorebtts]

I have some old atlas speaker cable kicking around and thought I would give a try it's free 

I have looked around the internet on the subject and most people have heard a great improvement by taking the gold links out and using speaker cables to make the link instead .

i do not want to ruin my speakers doing it but would of thought at £2000 for a set of speakers speaker wire would not make a lot of difference but read on a number of sites people believe this is a very good upgrade ?

yes it helps.gives better bass

 

[nopiano]

I have some old atlas speaker cable kicking around and thought I would give a try it's free

I have looked around the internet on the subject and most people have heard a great improvement by taking the gold links out and using speaker cables to make the link instead .

i do not want to ruin my speakers doing it but would of thought at £2000 for a set of speakers speaker wire would not make a lot of difference but read on a number of sites people believe this is a very good upgrade ?

I don't believe you've had your speakers all that long, bs, but if you had, even removing, cleaning and replacing the links might make a difference.

As you know, I'm a believer in listening, but I can imagine the expectation bias if replacing links with wire is pretty strong. I don't recall seeing specially plated links, or dct versions, but loads of people sell or make jumper sets. As you have some spare, you may as well try it. Then the debate is do you attach your speaker wire to the bass set, the treble set, or one to each!

 

[Al ears]

I have replaced metal plate links on my speakers and have replaced them with speaker wire links from a well known cable manufacturer, but only because I already owned them.

 

[Blacksabbath25]

I have some old atlas speaker cable kicking around and thought I would give a try it's free

I have looked around the internet on the subject and most people have heard a great improvement by taking the gold links out and using speaker cables to make the link instead .

i do not want to ruin my speakers doing it but would of thought at £2000 for a set of speakers speaker wire would not make a lot of difference but read on a number of sites people believe this is a very good upgrade ?

yes it helps.gives better bass

hello mate how you doing !

I will give a go tomorrow I've got some spare cable kicking around it's worth a try .

 

[Blacksabbath25]

I have some old atlas speaker cable kicking around and thought I would give a try it's free

I have looked around the internet on the subject and most people have heard a great improvement by taking the gold links out and using speaker cables to make the link instead .

i do not want to ruin my speakers doing it but would of thought at £2000 for a set of speakers speaker wire would not make a lot of difference but read on a number of sites people believe this is a very good upgrade ?

I don't believe you've had your speakers all that long, bs, but if you had, even removing, cleaning and replacing the links might make a difference.

As you know, I'm a believer in listening, but I can imagine the expectation bias if replacing links with wire is pretty strong. I don't recall seeing specially plated links, or dct versions, but loads of people sell or make jumper sets. As you have some spare, you may as well try it. Then the debate is do you attach your speaker wire to the bass set, the treble set, or one to each!

a good year I've had my Dali opticon 8s

currently I only connect 1 run of cable on each speaker I do not bother with bi-wiring it's a wast of money .

i am using solid core audioquest rocket 33 speaker cable which I like but can not match the links with the same make of cable as audioquest do not make rocket 33 speaker jump cable and if they did it would be silly money for a small amount of cable so will have to try it with the atlas cable I have and make my own and soldier the ends in silver solder .

 

[stereoman]

Is it because you want it to try out and improve already a good sound ? If so then ok but I'm almost sure it will bring nothing. I already tried it and made no significant difference to me - quite opposite to your thinking - biwiring makes a tiny difference ! Please share your experience after trying out.

 

[abacus]

If you change the links yourself there will be a difference, if you get somebody else to change them (A blind test) there won’t.

Most links also have a larger CSA then jumper cable, so they will have less resistance. (Although the difference in resistance over that small gap will be negligible)

Remember, speaker cable/links are a well-known science, so as always, ignore anything mystical spouted out by Hi Fi cable manufactures.

Hope this helps

Bill

 

[andyjm]

If you change the links yourself there will be a difference, if you get somebody else to change them (A blind test) there won’t.

Most links also have a larger CSA then jumper cable, so they will have less resistance. (Although the difference in resistance over that small gap will be negligible)

Remember, speaker cable/links are a well-known science, so as always, ignore anything mystical spouted out by Hi Fi cable manufactures.

Hope this helps

Bill

Words of wisdom from Bill.

The only thing that replacing the original jumpers with speaker wire will do is make matters worse.

Speaker wires do not have magic properties. A flat plate jumper supplied with the speaker will have lower resistance and greater contact area than a speaker cable and should be used if the option is available.

​- though the length of the jumper is so small that any effect won't be audible.

A better solution is to get manufacturers to stop wasting money on useless biwire connections which are only there for marketing purposes and put the money saved toward better drivers, or come to that, lower the price of the speaker.

 

[Gray]

Certainly using bare-ended copper wire instead of gold plated links would not be a good idea.

 

[macdiddy]

from abacus to anyone who starts a thread about cables and he hopes it helps as well.

( it doesn't ) *fool*

 

[hybridauth_Facebook_100004211376004]

I'm pretty sure if speaker manufacturers thought speaker cable was a better material than the brass jumper bars that they use now then they'd use it....as a couple of inches of cable over hundreds of pairs of speakers is a lot more cost effective than getting those jumper bars manufactured to order for hundreds of pairs of speakers.me thinks anyways.

 

[MajorFubar]

The implication if true is that speaker manufacturers expend countless amounts of money developing a new pair of speakers only at the last minute fk them up by using a substandard method to link the two halves of the cross-over together.
Same with those people who think amp and source manufacturers supply anything but the optimum mains cable you will ever need to hear their products at their best. But hey, there are far worse things going on in the world that we should be getting mad at, not hifi tweakery, so I respect cable-fanatics' right to indulge themselves, without prejudice, even if I do think they're all barnpots lol.

 

[Al ears]

I'm pretty sure if speaker manufacturers thought speaker cable was a better material than the brass jumper bars that they use now then they'd use it....as a couple of inches of cable over hundreds of pairs of speakers is a lot more cost effective than getting those jumper bars manufactured to order for hundreds of pairs of speakers.me thinks anyways.

Me thinks you are wrong. Simply stamping out a bit of brass is a lot cheaper than getting decent cable and terminating it..... too labour intensive... which is probably why most speaker manufacturers do it. ;-)

 

[Al ears]

The implication if true is that speaker manufacturers expend countless amounts of money developing a new pair of speakers only at the last minute fk them up by using a substandard method to link the two halves of the cross-over together.
Same with those people who think amp and source manufacturers supply anything but the optimum mains cable you will ever need to hear their products at their best. But hey, there are far worse things going on in the world that we should be getting mad at, not hifi tweakery, so I respect cable-fanatics' right to indulge themselves, without prejudice, even if I do think they're all barnpots lol.

+1

 

[Blacksabbath25]

Well I tried it with me making my own jumps up there was a difference between the gold jumps and the ones I made .

more bass not out of control but quite heavy when you play different kinds of music I liked it on some tracks that I played but others the bass was to much in your face not booming just to dominate that I am not used to .

surprisingly I was getting more treble information which was a good thing but there was something not quite right about the hole presentation I think it was the bass clouding the mid driver more as that seemed a bit more open as well .

i played it all day with the links I made but decided to put the gold links back what came with the speakers and the sound it still very good but hay I've tried it it's cost nothing but I would say it's worth a try if your got some old cable kicking around as it might make an improvement for someone as I would class it has a little upgrade .

 

[Blacksabbath25]

Well I tried it with me making my own jumps up there was a difference between the gold jumps and the ones I made .

more bass not out of control but quite heavy when you play different kinds of music I liked it on some tracks that I played but others the bass was to much in your face not booming just to dominate that I am not used to .

surprisingly I was getting more treble information which was a good thing but there was something not quite right about the hole presentation I think it was the bass clouding the mid driver more as that seemed a bit more open as well .

i played it all day with the links I made but decided to put the gold links back what came with the speakers and the sound it still very good but hay I've tried it it's cost nothing but I would say it's worth a try if your got some old cable kicking around as it might make an improvement for someone as I would class it has a little upgrade .

Is it worth leaving your links in place and then playing with speaker positioning and toe-in, to see if you can balance things out?

I would would also leave your links in for a week before changing back.

I'm glad you gave it a try and didn't get swayed by other side.

it was a hard choice as it did sound good but then you come across a track that was very heavy in bass i found my self turning down the sound .

the size of the speakers you would of thought they would be heavy in bass but they are not like that i do not use bass controls so what i hear is just the bass coming of the music so i get a real as possable sound .

i spent a lot of time with speaker positoning they sound good were they are but changing the links did change the sound why i do not no really .

 

[CnoEvil]

Well I tried it with me making my own jumps up there was a difference between the gold jumps and the ones I made .

more bass not out of control but quite heavy when you play different kinds of music I liked it on some tracks that I played but others the bass was to much in your face not booming just to dominate that I am not used to .

surprisingly I was getting more treble information which was a good thing but there was something not quite right about the hole presentation I think it was the bass clouding the mid driver more as that seemed a bit more open as well .

i played it all day with the links I made but decided to put the gold links back what came with the speakers and the sound it still very good but hay I've tried it it's cost nothing but I would say it's worth a try if your got some old cable kicking around as it might make an improvement for someone as I would class it has a little upgrade .

Is it worth leaving your links in place and then playing with speaker positioning and toe-in, to see if you can balance things out?

I would would also leave your links in for a week before changing back.

I'm glad you gave it a try and didn't get swayed by either side.

 

[hybridauth_Facebook_100004211376004]

Wouldn't it just change the sound in the high frequencies.....(if at all)the cable does go from the low frequency terminal to the high frequency terminal after all.....That's assuming you have connected your speaker cable from the amp to the LF terminals as per the norm.I really can't see it making such a difference to the LF

 

[Blacksabbath25]

Wouldn't it just change the sound in the high frequencies.....(if at all)the cable does go from the low frequency terminal to the high frequency terminal after all.....That's assuming you have connected your speaker cable from the amp to the LF terminals as per the norm.I really can't see it making such a difference to the LF

hi mark

the atlas speaker cable that I have kicking around is color coded red for positive and white for negative so on the back of my speakers I have red binding posts for positive which I ran 1 strip red cable from positive to positive using the bear wire holes and then did the same for the negative side .

i am using solid core audioquest speaker cable for the main runs to speakers to amplifier as my old cable were the atlas speaker cable that I have kicking around which I used to replace the gold jumper bars .

all I can say is the atlas cable which copper combined with the audioquest cable which is copper altered the sound the bass was a lot stronger clearly hearing a difference a lot more impact in say drums .

the audioquest speaker cable I have is factory terminated its fall proof as they color the plugs red for + and black for - and what direction you need to run the cable as the plugs are marked amplifier end - speaker end .