Replacing The Manufacture’s Jumper Bar

[Jim Creek]

I’m not bi-amping my speakers. One of my audiophile and wine sipping buddies tells me I should replace the jumper bar from the back of my MA Silver 100 speakers. He said to use 14 ga copper speaker wire instead. His reasoning is that the metal jumper bar is not pure copper but brass which does not conduct as well as copper.

Any truth to this? Or is he drinking too much wine?

 

[ryanosaur]

Too much wine.

 

[fpitas]

Too much wine.

And not enough science.

 

[Chrispy]

Maybe if you lost the connecting bars altogether....

 

[fpitas]

If you want to do it, it won't hurt anything. Have to think it's a waste of time. Audiophiles come up with all sorts of things that have no bearing in truth.

 

[Doodski]

I’m not bi-amping my speakers. One of my audiophile and wine sipping buddies tells me I should replace the jumper bar from the back of my MA Silver 100 speakers. He said to use 14 ga copper speaker wire instead. His reasoning is that the metal jumper bar is not pure copper but brass which does not conduct as well as copper.

Any truth to this? Or is he drinking to much wine?

There may be a veryyyy small voltage drop across the brass jumper compared to a pure copper conductor but we are splitting atoms here. The difference between brass and copper is very veryyy small and in laymans' terms it's crazy to even bother thinking about it because it's so minuscule a difference.

 

[fpitas]

it's so minuscule a difference

And the contact resistance between the screw terminals holding the brass strips in place is probably greater, anyway.

 

[ta240]

Brass is about 28% as conductive as copper. However the jumper bar is probably more than 4 times the size of the copper wire used in the speaker.

 

[DVDdoug]

The resistance (mathematically the inverse of conductivity) is insignificant...

Just checking an online reference, 1000 feet of 14AWG copper is 2.5 Ohms. If you had a 1000-foot run, yes the brass would be worse.

You can look-up the conductivity of brass and then you'd have to measure the length and cross sectional area.

But 2-inches would be about 0.00042 Ohms (if my math is correct) so the brass could be 100 times worse and still be insignificant. And as fpitas says, the contacts will have more resistance anyway.

[qutote]
One of my audiophile and wine sipping buddies tells me
[/quote]
Most wine connoisseurs understand blind tasting... Most "audiophiles" don't believe in blind listening tests...

​

 

[Penelinfi]

Do it to make it look cool and so that your speakers will automatically sound better to any audiophile people who see your speakers ;-)
The same with making y-split ends for your cables with heat shrink/actually split sleeve. Using a tubed insulation instead of the figure 8, or go fancier.

 

[Jim Creek]

I suspected his suggestion was BS. But I had to post it here to show him the truth. Thanks everyone.

 

[Prana Ferox]

On the other hand, you do want to make sure they're right side up.

 

[restorer-john]

There's a whole mini industry selling high end jumper cables for loudspeakers. Just look on Aliexpress...

example:

https://www.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-bi%2525252dwiring-jumper.html?catId=0&initiative_id=SB_20230818131721&SearchText=bi-wiring+jumper&spm=a2g0o.productlist.1000002.0

 

[fpitas]

I suspected his suggestion was BS. But I had to post it here to show him the truth. Thanks everyone.

It's a tough crowd. Hope you didn't lose a friend.

 

[Chrispy]

Then there's the whole subject of why these stupid dual terminals are there in the first place....

 

[fpitas]

Then there's the whole subject of why these stupid dual terminals are there in the first place....

I think we can guess. More cable sales, maybe more amp sales...

 

[RayDunzl]

His reasoning is that the metal jumper bar is not pure copper but brass which does not conduct as well as copper.

Any truth to this?

How does he know they aren't copper?

 

[Jim Creek]

How does he know they aren't copper?

The bar looks brassy not coppery.

 

[tw 2022]

Too much wine.

I tried it on some wharfedale 10.1s...it was wasted time...

 

[tw 2022]

Maybe if you lost the connecting bars altogether....

That would be the only reason...