Do not use stock jumpers


I've been using biwire Cardas Golden Ref with my Silverline Sonatina II's for some time now and very happy. Recently out of curiousity I've been trying Audience AU24, single wire, but I did not have the jumper so I was using the speaker's stock jumper. It sounded great, very refined and focused with great bass, but perhaps a bit weak in the lower mids.

Last night my banana-terminated AU24 jumpers arrived and I plugged them in after doing some testing with the stock jumpers. WOW. The sound is practically unrecognizable. Fully fleshed out lower mids and far bigger soundstage, more bounce (it had not been short of bounce), just awesome.

I had NOT been feeling that jumpers would make that big a difference. Heck, I did not feel that there was that big a difference to make.

Several years ago when I had Spendor FL9's I remember now experimenting with jumpers and feeling that it also made a big difference. (I had forgotton about this since I'd been biwiring so long.)

Anyway, Audience AU24 speaker cables with AU24 jumpers is stunning combination.

And, well, even that those stock jumper look so beautiful, I remain shocked at how much sound they were holding back. I still can't figure how a piece of metal or cable that short can make such a huge difference.

If you are thinking about experimenting with upgraded jumpers, I say, stop thinking and do it. (and no, I don't have any connection to anyone selling jumpers, or Audience cables! If there are people out there getting rich selling jumpers, I sure don't know them..).

This is just a heads-up from a fellow hobbiest. My experience leads me to believe that it is well worthwhile to experiment with replacing the stock jumpers, because the stock jumpers might be holding you back a lot more than you think.

Art
artmaltman
I have similar experiences with my Au24's and jumpers. The only problem with mine were that the Au24 jumpers with banana terminations were not as solid a connection as I would prefer.

So I re-installed the stock jumpers along with the Au24 jumpers and noticed a substantial improvement still.

Recently I removed the stock jumpers and am now using some better terminated bananas for what so far appears to be better sonics still.

Spreading the little cleaning juice that comes with the cables on all connections also helps quite a bit.

I thoroughly enjoy the Au24 cables.

-IMO
The ONIX Grand Master jumpers that I've seen recently are well-built and sound great.
My Cardas jumpers really sweeted things up too. Maybe not the prettiest, but they are built well and they sure work great.