Speaker Jumper Plates or Speaker wire?

[scene]

While reading another thread - Hi-Fi Upgrades That Cost Almost Nothing - I was reminded that there have been various posts where people have suggested replacing the jumper plates provided on speakers to bridge the LF and HF terminals with a short piece of speaker wire to improve speaker performance and clarity, etc. (This obviously assumes you're not bi-wiring or bi-amping the speakers.) Is this the case? I only ask, because considering the cost of speaker cable, surely the manufacturers would just provide cable themselves, rather than carefully shaped pieces of gold-plated metal? I will admit, I haven't yet tried comparing the performance of my MAs with the jumper plates compared to a couple of pieces of chord anniversary, but would this be a fair comparison? Should I get 4x10cm of really expensive speaker cable to make the comparison?

 

[Craig M.]

i just used some of my speaker cable.

 

[Anonymous]

no point using anything more expensive than what you have between the amp and speakers but give it a go. if it doesnt improve the sq then it only cost a couple of pound

 

[JohnnyV111]

Craig M.:i just used some of my speaker cable.

Me too. I can't see why this section of the connection would be more important than the rest of the speaker cabling, but I would be interested in the theory if there is one.

 

[Cold Roses]

Scene - Like you, I was a bit of a sceptic about jumpers. I was running B&W 685s single wire for almost a year using the factory bars, before I bought some jumper cables. I have to say that I was surprised at the difference it made to my speakers - the jumpers brought an extra level of space, detail and clarity not present before. Of all the hi-fi updgrades I've made, it was undoubtedly the most cost-effective.

It's well worth trying!

 

[Anonymous]

its probably one of the cheapest and most effective upgrades i have done, as i use Chord oyddesy cable my dealer cut me 4 small lenghts off and let me have them gratis.

 

[Anonymous]

Did the same, cut bits off the ends of the existing cable I had and replaced the brass links.

 

[scene]

So it seems quite a few of you have swapped to speaker cable jumpers to some effect. Hmm. May well have to try this.

I suppose this leads to some follow up questions
- will simple cut off lengths of unterminated speaker cable do the job, or should I get ones with banana plugs or spade fittings on?
- if this seems to make such an improvement, why do speaker manufacturers provide the brass speaker plates in the first place, rather an some highish quality jumper cables?

 

[Craig M.]

i just used a bit from the end of my speaker cable, no plugs - just bare wire.

no idea why they don't fit them as standard - no way i imagined the improvement.

 

[JohnnyV111]

scene:So it seems quite a few of you have swapped to speaker cable jumpers to some effect. Hmm. May well have to try this.I suppose this leads to some follow up questions- will simple cut off lengths of unterminated speaker cable do the job, or should I get ones with banana plugs or spade fittings on?- if this seems to make such an improvement, why do speaker manufacturers provide the brass speaker plates in the first place, rather an some highish quality jumper cables?

If you're really gonna "go for it" and get specialist jumper cables I'd suggest terminations as speaker cabling should be stripped back every year or so to stop the degradation that comes with hardening - strip back the short jumper cables a couple of times and you'll be left with nothing at all! Mind you, it might not be that much of a loss...I'm guessing speaker manufacturers do not provide jumpers as the difference will be minuscule and wouldn't possibly be noticed in any ABX test, or by anyone demoing the speakers.

 

[Cold Roses]

No idea why most speaker manufacturers provide the brass plates/bars (maybe cost?), though it's interesting that some of the higher end B&Ws, for example the 805s, come with jumper wires rather than plates/bars.

 

[aliEnRIK]

Im not a fan of bars or jumper cables

To keep everything level through the frequency range, you should use the same cable as your main speaker cable.

 

[ID.]

aliEnRIK:
To keep everything level through the frequency range, you should use the same cable as your main speaker cable.

Kind of makes sense to me, but I have Nordost monofilament jumpers with completely different speaker cable. Mainly because I got a good deal on them, they are convenient and it is a hell of a lot of effort stripping and terminating Oyaide Tunami nigo.

I have them in a diamond(?) configuration (one going into the bottom LF and one into the top HF) and it sounds superb. Purely subjective as I haven't tried using the same cable for both. Clearly superior to the brass connectors, but I did it not long after changing my speaker cable so a little hard spotting what changes come from what. Definitely worth doing,

 

[Anonymous]

I have a friend who makes rings, he uses pure silver bar as his jumpers and swears by them.

 

[scene]

aliEnRIK:
To keep everything level through the frequency range, you should use the same cable as your main speaker cable.

As ID. said, this sort of makes sense and I can see the logic behind it.
So short term, I should probably be snipping a few cm of my speaker cables and using those and long term, look to get connectors on the end... (I'm guessing spades are probably the most convenient?)
Hmm, another little bit of fiddling to do with my system

 

[aliEnRIK]

Depends what you use now. Most people use closed bananas, meaning spades at both ends (or spades at one end and bananas at the other)

If open ended bananas (Meaning you can daisy chain them), then bananas throughout will do