Short piece of spk wire sustitute for spk link?

Ditto on the responses above. The stock links or brass jumpers of most speakers are usually not too good. A short length of speaker wire will produce better results in most cases.

Kijanki made a good point about the connection at the speaker terminals. The quality of connection ie. tightness at the binding posts will likely affect sound quality as well. It may be more feasible to consider jumpers that have spades on one end and bananas on another end instead of using bare wires. A tighter and more rigid connection usually yields better sound.

Quick question. If the OP does go with speaker wire with bare copper ends at the terminals will they have to clean the ends with Deoxit or other cleaners periodically?

Also if what gauge should the speaker wire be? I've seen instances of 22AWG used as replacements for the brass plates all the way up to 10AWG. I don't think I heard the difference though.

Audioquest jumpers are gauge 14:

http://www.amazon.com/AudioQuest-Silver-Plated-Biwire-Jumpers/dp/B0006VMATC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1296537277&sr=8-3

My version is gold plated.

Why not try bi-wiring instead of replacing the speaker links with short speaker wires?

I'm using the Signal Cable Ultra Speaker Cables (bi-wire configuration) and they're great!
http://signalcable.com/ultraspeaker.html

It's been suggested to me that the best jumpers use the same wire as the cables (where possible) to maintain the impedance etc. Not sure if it makes a difference, but anything is better than the stock jumpers. I've tried expensive custom jumpers with spades ($180) and a bare ended bit of audioquest cable and both worked about equally well. A tight fit should eliminate the need for copper cleaning over time.