VTX-11 speaker jumpers

[BlueFox]

After going though the last few years upgrading all my cables (power, interconnect, speaker) and power I finally broke down and bought two pair of speaker jumpers. My speakers, Aerial Acoustic 7T, have nice, solid brass jumpers, and, to be honest, I really couldn't imagine a speaker jumper making much difference.

Well, once again, the real world makes a mockery of my preconceived ideas. As soon as I turned the amps on after replacing the jumpers I knew it was different. I had paused an Elgar Cello Concerto while changing, and upon resumption it appeared to be a bit louder. As I listened to it I noticed the cello would seem to move closer to the left speaker, and then come back a tad to the right. It was if the player would lean over, and then go back upright.

As they have burnt in, the soundstage is even better defined, and nuances such as note decay are longer. The over all effect is scary in its new found detail and clarity. How can this short piece of wire, which is about 4" longer than the jumpers, make this big of a difference? I guess based on my past experience with other cables I should have expected this, but I am still amazed at the improvement. I have a new pair of speakers, and they are already broke in.

Jumpers: Shunyata VTX-11

http://www.shunyata.com/index.php/our-products/signal-cables/speaker-cables/400-ref-vtx11-jumper

 

[JackD201]

Hi Bud,

Are you jumping the signal from the woofer posts to the mid-tweeter posts or the other way around? IME jumping from top to bottom is always cleaner.

 

[BlueFox]

I originally had the speaker cables (Zitron Anaconda) attached to the top posts. After getting the jumpers I attached the cables to the bottom. I have no idea which pair of posts are attached to which speakers.

Also, I never saw this post when looking at 'New posts'.

 

[CGabriel]

Is one set of posts labeled High and the other Low or ??

 

[BlueFox]

To be honest, I never really looked. Now that I did I see between the bottom two posts 'Bass' is there, and 'Treble/Mid' is between the top two posts. I assumed that is how they were wired when I put the speaker cables on the bottom posts.

Why are there directional arrows on the jumpers? I put the 'Source' arrow on the same posts as the speaker cables, and the 'Destination' arrow goes to the top posts.

 

[CGabriel]

To be honest, I never really looked. Now that I did I see between the bottom two posts 'Bass' is there, and 'Treble/Mid' is between the top two posts. I assumed that is how they were wired when I put the speaker cables on the bottom posts.

Why are there directional arrows on the jumpers? I put the 'Source' arrow on the same posts as the speaker cables, and the 'Destination' arrow goes to the top posts.

Arrows are for the OCD types - uh well I guess that is everyone here.

Try it both ways. There is almost always one that sounds best. The mid/treble pulls less current so it is usally best with the speaker cable to Bass and then jumper to mid/treble.

 

[LL21]

I have added a Transparent Ref jumper set to the stock 1/4" thick copper plate jumper on the back of my Wilson X1s and have experienced similarly pleasant surprises as described above.

Just for fun, since my 10 year jumpers have been superceded by Transp RefXL, MM and Opus...I thought I'd try all 3 and see what happens. I feel like jumper might be bigger bang for buck than a bi-wire from what I have read and been told...but who knows. Stay tuned!!! Given the improvement the 10-year old TA Ref jumpers make...I am intrigued to hear if the newer jumpers are better or same.