Have your say & ask the experts!

Correct wiring of jumper cables

177 replies [Last post]
Vizzage
Vizzage's picture
Offline
Joined: 1 Aug 2009
Posts: 100
RE: Correct wiring of jumper cables

Ok. So i've been a-tryin' this thing about putting red to treble, black to bass. Obviously I can't tell the differenc bcoz I'm a philistine. But it's occured to me that my speaker cable is more than twice the length it needs to be. I've hesitated to shorten it bcoz it's so valuable. But should I in fact chop it in half and bi-wire my speakers? Does bi-wiring mean you shove both wired into the output on the amp, have both cables running to the speaker, and plug one into the treble red & black, and the other cable goes into the bass red & black? Is it much better?

__________________

SRM-tech Rega P3/GL2400     Talk Electronics             Castle Howard

Rega Planet CD player       >    Hurricane/Tornado/   >  speakers with

Denon TU-1800 DAB/FM         Whirlwind amplifiers      Tellurium Q Black

Benedict_Arnold
Benedict_Arnold's picture
Offline
Joined: 16 Jan 2013
Posts: 275
RE: Correct wiring of jumper cables

What has been talked about above is instead of bi-wiring, not in addition to it.

If you only have one set of speaker terminals on your amp, or "Zone A" and "Zone B" terminals fed by the same power amp or amplifiers inside the box, you won't get much benefit from bi-wiring, as I think most will agree.  The main benefit from bi-wiring comes when you have two power amps.  If these are both stereo-only, you use on to drive the trebles, the other to drive the bass.  Some designs can be run in twin mono mode, with one box used to drive each speaker.

Therefore I would not advise cutting your cables in half, just for the experiment.  In fact I would NEVER advise anyone to cut up expensive cables.

Supernik
Supernik's picture
Offline
Joined: 5 Feb 2013
Posts: 19
RE: Correct wiring of jumper cables

+1

RobinKidderminster
RobinKidderminster's picture
Offline
Joined: 27 May 2009
Posts: 1555
RE: Correct wiring of jumper cables

Worries that biamp and biwire are confused. If biamped.u MUST remove links.

__________________

Mordaunt Short Mezzo System C - 8,5,1,9.Yamaha V2065. SonyS570. Panasonic 42in., Sky HD 1TB. Garrard 86SB. PF30. Wii. WDTV Live. Harmony One. STAX300. QED cabling. Galaxy Tab 10.1

System Photos - http://s1051.photobucket.com/user/robinkidderminster/library/?sort=3&page=1

 Base trap Project -  http://www.whathifi.com/forum/home-cinema/corner-base-trap-completed-project?page=1

BigColz
BigColz's picture
Offline
Joined: 18 Jun 2012
Posts: 300
RE: Correct wiring of jumper cables

Benedict_Arnold wrote:

What has been talked about above is instead of bi-wiring, not in addition to it.

If you only have one set of speaker terminals on your amp, or "Zone A" and "Zone B" terminals fed by the same power amp or amplifiers inside the box, you won't get much benefit from bi-wiring, as I think most will agree.  The main benefit from bi-wiring comes when you have two power amps.  If these are both stereo-only, you use on to drive the trebles, the other to drive the bass.  Some designs can be run in twin mono mode, with one box used to drive each speaker.

Therefore I would not advise cutting your cables in half, just for the experiment.  In fact I would NEVER advise anyone to cut up expensive cables.

 

+1 for don't bother bi wiring or cut expensive cables

 

using two amps, one for treble and one bass is bi-amping and can bring benefits as its twice the power

__________________

Electrocompaniet PI 2 | Naim ND5 XS | Chord Epic | ProAc Studio 115

Vizzage
Vizzage's picture
Offline
Joined: 1 Aug 2009
Posts: 100
RE: Correct wiring of jumper cables

Yeah it's all coming from the same terminals on the amp (1 red one, and 1 black one). I might one day splash out on another couple of Tornado monoblocs. But seeing as that means yet another grand piano for the wife I'll not be doing that yet. 

__________________

SRM-tech Rega P3/GL2400     Talk Electronics             Castle Howard

Rega Planet CD player       >    Hurricane/Tornado/   >  speakers with

Denon TU-1800 DAB/FM         Whirlwind amplifiers      Tellurium Q Black

andyjm
andyjm's picture
Offline
Joined: 20 Jul 2012
Posts: 209
RE: Correct wiring of jumper cables

Vizzage wrote:

Ok. So i've been a-tryin' this thing about putting red to treble, black to bass. Obviously I can't tell the differenc bcoz I'm a philistine. But it's occured to me that my speaker cable is more than twice the length it needs to be. I've hesitated to shorten it bcoz it's so valuable. But should I in fact chop it in half and bi-wire my speakers? Does bi-wiring mean you shove both wired into the output on the amp, have both cables running to the speaker, and plug one into the treble red & black, and the other cable goes into the bass red & black? Is it much better?

Strangely, of all the posts on this thread, this post makes the most sense.  The best speaker cable is the shortest, fatest speaker cable.  Resistance is the overriding factor when evaluating speaker cable performance. Keep your cables as short as you can. Running two in parallel effectively doubles the cross sectional area of the conductor and halves the resistance.  

__________________

andyjm
andyjm's picture
Offline
Joined: 20 Jul 2012
Posts: 209
RE: Correct wiring of jumper cables

BigColz wrote:

Benedict_Arnold wrote:

What has been talked about above is instead of bi-wiring, not in addition to it.

If you only have one set of speaker terminals on your amp, or "Zone A" and "Zone B" terminals fed by the same power amp or amplifiers inside the box, you won't get much benefit from bi-wiring, as I think most will agree.  The main benefit from bi-wiring comes when you have two power amps.  If these are both stereo-only, you use on to drive the trebles, the other to drive the bass.  Some designs can be run in twin mono mode, with one box used to drive each speaker.

Therefore I would not advise cutting your cables in half, just for the experiment.  In fact I would NEVER advise anyone to cut up expensive cables.

 

+1 for don't bother bi wiring or cut expensive cables

 

using two amps, one for treble and one bass is bi-amping and can bring benefits as its twice the power

isnt the point of having expensive speaker cable to improve sound quality?  Why compromise that by having cables twice the length required?

__________________

BigColz
BigColz's picture
Offline
Joined: 18 Jun 2012
Posts: 300
RE: Correct wiring of jumper cables

andyjm wrote:

BigColz wrote:

Benedict_Arnold wrote:

What has been talked about above is instead of bi-wiring, not in addition to it.

If you only have one set of speaker terminals on your amp, or "Zone A" and "Zone B" terminals fed by the same power amp or amplifiers inside the box, you won't get much benefit from bi-wiring, as I think most will agree.  The main benefit from bi-wiring comes when you have two power amps.  If these are both stereo-only, you use on to drive the trebles, the other to drive the bass.  Some designs can be run in twin mono mode, with one box used to drive each speaker.

Therefore I would not advise cutting your cables in half, just for the experiment.  In fact I would NEVER advise anyone to cut up expensive cables.

 

+1 for don't bother bi wiring or cut expensive cables

 

using two amps, one for treble and one bass is bi-amping and can bring benefits as its twice the power

isnt the point of having expensive speaker cable to improve sound quality?  Why compromise that by having cables twice the length required?

 

ok then send then off to the company they're made by, get them cut in half both proffesionally terminated (chord were very helpfull/reasonable when getting my epics re terminated) and sent back then sell one set...  beauty, eh

__________________

Electrocompaniet PI 2 | Naim ND5 XS | Chord Epic | ProAc Studio 115

Vizzage
Vizzage's picture
Offline
Joined: 1 Aug 2009
Posts: 100
RE: Correct wiring of jumper cables

andyjm wrote:

Strangely, of all the posts on this thread, this post makes the most sense.  

 

Sir, I thank you Smile

__________________

SRM-tech Rega P3/GL2400     Talk Electronics             Castle Howard

Rega Planet CD player       >    Hurricane/Tornado/   >  speakers with

Denon TU-1800 DAB/FM         Whirlwind amplifiers      Tellurium Q Black

CnoEvil
CnoEvil's picture
Offline
Joined: 21 Aug 2009
Posts: 8836
RE: Correct wiring of jumper cables

Vizzage wrote:

andyjm wrote:

Strangely, of all the posts on this thread, this post makes the most sense.  

 

Sir, I thank you Smile

Making more sense than us lot is setting the bar pretty low........so not necessarily a complement!  twisted  Wink

__________________

"Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again."  André Gide

Vizzage
Vizzage's picture
Offline
Joined: 1 Aug 2009
Posts: 100
RE: Correct wiring of jumper cables

Haha Smile

__________________

SRM-tech Rega P3/GL2400     Talk Electronics             Castle Howard

Rega Planet CD player       >    Hurricane/Tornado/   >  speakers with

Denon TU-1800 DAB/FM         Whirlwind amplifiers      Tellurium Q Black

Benedict_Arnold
Benedict_Arnold's picture
Offline
Joined: 16 Jan 2013
Posts: 275
RE: Correct wiring of jumper cables

andyjm wrote:

BigColz wrote:

Benedict_Arnold wrote:

What has been talked about above is instead of bi-wiring, not in addition to it.

If you only have one set of speaker terminals on your amp, or "Zone A" and "Zone B" terminals fed by the same power amp or amplifiers inside the box, you won't get much benefit from bi-wiring, as I think most will agree.  The main benefit from bi-wiring comes when you have two power amps.  If these are both stereo-only, you use on to drive the trebles, the other to drive the bass.  Some designs can be run in twin mono mode, with one box used to drive each speaker.

Therefore I would not advise cutting your cables in half, just for the experiment.  In fact I would NEVER advise anyone to cut up expensive cables.

 

+1 for don't bother bi wiring or cut expensive cables

 

using two amps, one for treble and one bass is bi-amping and can bring benefits as its twice the power

isnt the point of having expensive speaker cable to improve sound quality?  Why compromise that by having cables twice the length required?

A metre or two either way won't change your speaker cable performance one jot.  Wikipedia gives some good rules of thumb for maximum speaker lengths based on wire gauge:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speaker_wire

BTW - the higher the number the smaller the wire - it comes from the number of times the wire would have to be drawn down through a die to achieve a given diameter, so think of 16-gauge wire as requiring 16 draws, 22 as requiring 22 draws or steps.

So unless you live in Blenheim Palace I wouldn't worry Smile

What happens if you keep cutting speaker wires down in length is you end up with a huge collection of jumper cables for bi-wire speakers....

andyjm
andyjm's picture
Offline
Joined: 20 Jul 2012
Posts: 209
RE: Correct wiring of jumper cables

Benedict_Arnold wrote:

andyjm wrote:

BigColz wrote:

Benedict_Arnold wrote:

What has been talked about above is instead of bi-wiring, not in addition to it.

If you only have one set of speaker terminals on your amp, or "Zone A" and "Zone B" terminals fed by the same power amp or amplifiers inside the box, you won't get much benefit from bi-wiring, as I think most will agree.  The main benefit from bi-wiring comes when you have two power amps.  If these are both stereo-only, you use on to drive the trebles, the other to drive the bass.  Some designs can be run in twin mono mode, with one box used to drive each speaker.

Therefore I would not advise cutting your cables in half, just for the experiment.  In fact I would NEVER advise anyone to cut up expensive cables.

 

+1 for don't bother bi wiring or cut expensive cables

 

using two amps, one for treble and one bass is bi-amping and can bring benefits as its twice the power

isnt the point of having expensive speaker cable to improve sound quality?  Why compromise that by having cables twice the length required?

A metre or two either way won't change your speaker cable performance one jot.  Wikipedia gives some good rules of thumb for maximum speaker lengths based on wire gauge:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speaker_wire

BTW - the higher the number the smaller the wire - it comes from the number of times the wire would have to be drawn down through a die to achieve a given diameter, so think of 16-gauge wire as requiring 16 draws, 22 as requiring 22 draws or steps.

So unless you live in Blenheim Palace I wouldn't worry Smile

What happens if you keep cutting speaker wires down in length is you end up with a huge collection of jumper cables for bi-wire speakers....

Tough to know where to start on a thread like this. On one hand there are a group of posters who believe introducing 2 inches of thick conductive jumper plate into a speaker circuit is clearly audible, and there are others who think introducing a metre here or there of speaker cable makes no difference. Can't be both now, can it.

At the risk of bringing facts into the discussion, 1 metre of speaker cable will have at least 20 times the resistance of a jumper plate, probably much more.

__________________

Vizzage
Vizzage's picture
Offline
Joined: 1 Aug 2009
Posts: 100
RE: Correct wiring of jumper cables

Benedict_Arnold wrote:

What happens if you keep cutting speaker wires down in length is you end up with a huge collection of jumper cables for bi-wire speakers....

 

haha reminds me of my sisters friend who, after her granny died, was helping with clearing out the things and found a jam jar with the label "bits of string, too short to be of any use"

__________________

SRM-tech Rega P3/GL2400     Talk Electronics             Castle Howard

Rega Planet CD player       >    Hurricane/Tornado/   >  speakers with

Denon TU-1800 DAB/FM         Whirlwind amplifiers      Tellurium Q Black