Bi-wire jumper config

I believe there are situations of placebo effect, but here some of Almarg's thoughts on the matter...

Keep in mind that the swap will result in different frequency components flowing in the + leg and the - leg of each two-conductor pair of wires. It seems to me that would in effect amount to a change in the inductance of the cables, because the magnetic fields associated with current flow through adjacent conductors would no longer be equal and opposite.

As you probably realize, depending on cable length, cable type, and the impedance of the speaker at high frequencies, speaker cable inductance can sometimes have a significant effect on upper treble response. And upper treble response would seem to be something that can subjectively correlate with soundstaging.

The connection swap would also reduce the degree to which any noise pickup that may occur is common mode. I would not expect that to generally be significant in an amplifier-to-speaker connection, because of the low impedances and relatively high signal levels that are involved, but I would be hesitant to totally rule out the possibility.

As you know, I am certainly one who tends to be skeptical about a lot of tweaks that are reported, but in this case I would not rule out the possibility that the differences were real.

Best regards,
-- Al

(quote used w/o permission)

Thanks for citing my statement, Lowrider. It comes from this 2011 thread.

I should clarify that what was being discussed in that thread was not diagonal connection of a single pair of conductors, used with jumpers, but rather a biwire set of four conductors, with the two conductors corresponding to one polarity (either + or -) swapped at the speaker terminals.

What I said would not be applicable to a single pair of conductors used with jumpers, and connected to diagonal terminals. The difference that would make in terms of current flow would be that both high frequency currents and low frequency currents would flow through one and only one jumper, while if the two conductors were connected to a horizontal pair of terminals currents in one of those frequency ranges would flow through two jumpers, and currents in the other of those frequency ranges would flow through no jumpers. I have no idea, though, why that might make any difference sonically, provided that contact integrity is good and that the jumpers are short and of reasonably good quality.

In any event, I think that the bottom line in all of this was captured in the initial response by John (Jmcgrogan2), when he said: "You just have to experiment with the cables and decide for yourself." Or as I have said in some other threads on biwiring, in which I stated what I perceived to be the consensus of many discussions on the subject: "It may or may not make a difference. If it makes a difference it may or may not be for the better." :-)

Best regards,
-- Al

Thanks for posting, all..!This is great info. I went back
and read Al's orig post. Fascinating.

I wonder why Nordost and Audio question suggest the same,
diagonal configuration, but vice versa (nordost says
black lead to HF, audioquest says red lead to HF)??

"04-20-15: Lowrider57
I believe there are situations of placebo effect, but here some of Almarg's thoughts on the matter..."

You could have someone change the configuration a few times and not tell you. Then do some listening and see if you can hear a difference.

Good idea, Zd. I'd like to know for sure, but first I'll have to get up off my lazy ass.