I am interested in your opinion and experience with hp jumper cables or straps (some people say jumper, others talk about straps).
Is it a valuable upgrade changing the original jumpers of your loudspeakers with a jumper cable made by cable manufacturers ?
Generally speaking, yes, but it depends, of course, on the particular circumstances. However many of the jumpers that I have come across are not much better then a simple metal pressing, often plated to give an impression of quality.
I have never come across anyone saying that the supplied jumpers outperformed those made from speaker cable matching the main amp/speaker run or otherwise specially selected.
If youâre talking about how to connect an amplifier to TWO pairs of speaker terminals per channel, then my experience has always been:
Two separate cable runs > one cable run + jumpers of the same cable > one cable run + metal bars often supplied with the speakers
This is a shame, of course, because speaker cables normally arenât free. Or easy to connect in volume to most ampsâŚ
Hereâs what the arse end of my amp looks like as a result:
I suspect there are plenty of cases where two runs wouldnât make a difference (perhaps some crossover configurations?), but the improvements in my system always had me reaching for my credit card.
A slight diversion, I know, but I spot a pair of Iconoclast speaker cables above. Me too (and I have the interconnects also)! Hello, fellow owner. I wonder how many of us there are on this forum.
I believe @PaleRider is an Iconoclast user. Me? I donât use speaker cables.
Yup, same hereâŚ
Well, I was. I no longer have any speaker cables in my system, having gone to balanced ICs from the Wavelet to the Legacy Valor speakers. I need to do something with those Iconoclasts. I love them personally, but no longer use them.
@PaleRider Itâs good to have you posting again in âdCS WorldââŚ
Itâs been a whileâŚ
Hey Jonathan, thanks for the âwelcome back.â It has been a very busy year here at Chez Loufoque, but almost all good. And still enjoying my now-fully-integrated headphone & speaker system.
Thatâs good.
I would be interested to know what changes, if any, you have made in your systemâŚ
Almost none. I have been working with Tempo Electric, a company I heard about here, perhaps from Pete, in upstate NY on a new set of cables for the systemâalmost entirely for sentimental reasons, as they were based in the town where my two older daughters grew up, but also because I liked how they articulated their engineering philosophyâbut that project is not done yet.
I had them build a new set of ICs in order to complete the integration of the headphone rack into the speaker system, and these sound marvelous, especially on the Susvara, but also discernibly so on the Stax 9000. They also built a set of AES/EBU for the connection of the DAC and Upsampler, but I am uncertain of any sonic difference as compared to my previous DH Labs Silversonics, other than expectation bias; as I said, this was primarily a sentimental project. Right now, they are working on the clock cables, which have proved a bit challenging, but I have no doubt we will get there.
Other than that project which began last December, I have done nothing but enjoy my system. My severe GAS has been directed elsewhere. 
Which is what itâs all aboutâŚ
Not me, Guv. Iâm glad that you are enjoying though.
