Just added jumpers to my RTi A9's

gfong

Purchased two 10 ft runs of used Audioquest Type 4 speaker wire for my center channel (only required one) and the guy included 4 jumpers so I used them on my 2 fronts.

Not sure of the brand but the wrap has a cello or violin on them with a bow. They could be Audioquest as they are using Audioquest CF-Spade/G ends and same nylon leads as the Type 4 speaker wires. No matter if they are not, as they seem to do the job and look good.

Honestly, I am not going to comment on if they inproved the sound as I have made so many changes to my system I would be kidding you all if I commented. Who am I kidding! An upgrade that did not do anything! I think the treble is a little more pronounced!

Geoff4rfc

gfong wrote: »

Purchased two 10 ft runs of used Audioquest Type 4 speaker wire for my center channel (only required one) and the guy included 4 jumpers so I used them on my 2 fronts.

Not sure of the brand but the wrap has a cello or violin on them with a bow. They could be Audioquest as they are using Audioquest CF-Spade/G ends and same nylon leads as the Type 4 speaker wires. No matter if they are not, as they seem to do the job and look good.

Honestly, I am not going to comment on if they inproved the sound as I have made so many changes to my system I would be kidding you all if I commented. Who am I kidding! An upgrade that did not do anything! I think the treble is a little more pronounced!

where did you make your purchase? I did something similar to my 70's. piggy backed the 14g to attach to the other posts.

Conradicles

Looks good to me.

gfong

Thanks, I purchased them off of Audiogon.

SRTer

gfong wrote: »

I think the treble is a little more pronounced!

Do you think more treble is better on your RTi A9's, I thing mine are plenty bright?

gfong

SRTer wrote: »

Do you think more treble is better on your RTi A9's, I thing mine are plenty bright?

I hear ya, I guess I should have explained that they sound more clean or more detailed, but definitely not bright.

I have found that the Audioquest cables took some of the highs away from the speakers. Flattened them out compared to what I was using before. They are not as harsh as they were with the cable I was using.

Ern Dog

Jumpers certainly made a difference for my speakers. I was using some home-made DH Labs Q-10 jumpers and when I changed them out for some home-made PNF Symphony jumpers, it totally opened up the speaker.

gfong

Ern Dog wrote: »

Jumpers certainly made a difference for my speakers. I was using some home-made DH Labs Q-10 jumpers and when I changed them out for some home-made PNF Symphony jumpers, it totally opened up the speaker.

Glad to hear the jumpers opened up the speakers for you.

I am going to sit down tomorrow and give a good listen to the system. As mentioned, lots of changes and have not digested them all. Thanks for the reply.

SRTer

gfong wrote: »

Glad to hear the jumpers opened up the speakers for you.

I am going to sit down tomorrow and give a good listen to the system. As mentioned, lots of changes and have not digested them all. Thanks for the reply.

I would like to see if anyone would know of any published performance or bench test that would help me in my study about doing this mod? Paste like please.

Changing the gold plated connects with audio wire sounds simple enough but I wonder if this really makes the speaker perform better considering the speakers were designed to work optimally with the metal interconnects.

Is it that the speakers perform BETTER scientifically or is it that we feel better that we modded the speaker and it sounds DIFFERENT?

Just because something is different does not make it better and I want to be sure before I do this mod that you all have enlighten me to.

I?m leaning on the side of doing the mod, just want to make sure.

gfong

SRTer wrote: »

I would like to see if anyone would know of any published performance or bench test that would help me in my study about doing this mod? Paste like please.

Changing the gold plated connects with audio wire sounds simple enough but I wonder if this really makes the speaker perform better considering the speakers were designed to work optimally with the metal interconnects.

Is it that the speakers perform BETTER scientifically or is it that we feel better that we modded the speaker and it sounds DIFFERENT?

Just because something is different does not make it better and I want to be sure before I do this mod that you all have enlighten me to.

I?m leaning on the side of doing the mod, just want to make sure.

There are a few threads on here about jumpers if you search it out.

The main logic behind this mod is that the connection between the posts will be made with a higher quality material which should lead to transfering a better signal.

Most Polk speakers are set up to be bi-amped so that could lead me to think that Polk would want them bi-amped and that piece would no longer be in there. I am not bi-amping so I may as well try to put a better connector in place.

The stock metal piece works, I just think that a better connection between the two posts "should" lead to an improvement.

And some people just like to fiddle with things! (non scientific!) :biggrin:

An easy way to try it is to use a short run of heavy gauge speaker wire and run them between the posts. If you like the new sound great, if you do not hear anything put them back to the stock plates.

Pretty inexpensive mod! I am sure others will chime in with ideas or do's and don'ts.

SRTer

gfong wrote: »

There are a few threads on here about jumpers if you search it out.

The main logic behind this mod is that the connection between the posts will be made with a higher quality material which should lead to transfering a better signal.

Most Polk speakers are set up to be bi-amped so that could lead me to think that Polk would want them bi-amped and that piece would no longer be in there. I am not bi-amping so I may as well try to put a better connector in place.

The stock metal piece works, I just think that a better connection between the two posts "should" lead to an improvement.

And some people just like to fiddle with things! (non scientific!) :biggrin:

An easy way to try it is to use a short run of heavy gauge speaker wire and run them between the posts. If you like the new sound great, if you do not hear anything put them back to the stock plates.

Pretty inexpensive mod! I am sure others will chime in with ideas or do's and don'ts.

Thanks, I'm going to look in to this.

Geoff4rfc

gfong wrote: »

An easy way to try it is to use a short run of heavy gauge speaker wire and run them between the posts. If you like the new sound great, if you do not hear anything put them back to the stock plates.

Pretty inexpensive mod! I am sure others will chime in with ideas or do's and don'ts.

That's close to how I did mine. Instead of configuring like yours, I spliced additional wire to the main wire four inches back from the speaker connection. The main wire connects to the bottom terminals, the spliced wire connects to the top terminals.

gfong

Geoff4rfc wrote: »

That's close to how I did mine. Instead of configuring like yours, I spliced additional wire to the main wire four inches back from the speaker connection. The main wire connects to the bottom terminals, the spliced wire connects to the top terminals.

I was thinking about doing it like that before I received the jumpers with the speaker wires I purchased. It was a bonus and little work from me to accomplish this!

Your method sounds like a more permanemt solution and possibly better as the signal runs up the same wire and then splits to the terminals. Cool!
I don't know a lot about this but am learning with reading and discussions like this!

Geoff4rfc

gfong wrote: »

I was thinking about doing it like that before I received the jumpers with the speaker wires I purchased. It was a bonus and little work from me to accomplish this!

Your method sounds like a more permanemt solution and possibly better as the signal runs up the same wire and then splits to the terminals. Cool!
I don't know a lot about this but am learning with reading and discussions like this!

Thanks, yeah, I got the idea from a picture of some dudes EXPENSIVE set up. He had these very high end speakers (a name I couldn't even pronounce) and his wiring looked like yours, sleeved, but it split at the end and had four wires, the splits were about 4-5" long. I thought, shoot, I can do that!!