One benefit of bi-wiring is keeping the bass current separate from the more nuanced mids and highs. If you run one of your bi-wire speaker cable pairs directly to the LF terminals and then jump the other pair between the MF and HF posts, then you probably don't need 8 awg wire. If both pairs of your bi-wire speaker cables use the same gauge wire, then one option would be to match that gauge with your jumpers. I would pick a type of wire that most closely matches what is in the speaker cables that you like, i.e., stranded or solid core, copper or silver, etc.
I like using a spade at one end and a banana at the other end of jumpers I have made so I do not need to stack spades. I would not skimp on the connectors and if you purchase connectors that offer a set-screw connection option, you can always use them again if you want to try different wire. Furutech
FP-201 and FP-202 would get the job done. |
IMO..... keep it simple to retain optimal synergy ...., full stop.
Go invest in the same brand / same model OEM factory jumpers
Anything less is a full compromise with added unknown risks that you already know; as evidenced by the existence of your post in the first place. |
Dead soft .999 silver 8awg or 10awg round wire from Rio Grande on-line. No degradation associated with spades or solder joints. The 8awg has the right stiffness to hold a complete curve around the binding post. |
How about pre out/ amp in jumpers for integrated amps (eg NAD)? |
use solid copper wire 8awg links. Most of Home Depot stores won't even charge dime for those 2 tiny little links. |
I would go with the same brand cable. I had bad luck mixing speaker cables on a pair of bi-wired speakers. The mids and highs seemed disconnected from the bass. |
Cool ! Will report back. Mitch: stacking spades is no bueno? |
Avoiding spade stacking is just my preference so I don't end up with bent spade connectors. If your plan is to do it once then leave it alone, stacking them should be fine. I move stuff around too much so don't like to be bothered with it. Since I make all my own wire now, I connect everything to two spades at the amp end. Just made a set of bi-wire speaker cables with 2, 9awg runs to each speaker so needed to connect 6awg of wire to a single spade at the amp end. Furez spades from Douglas Connection worked great. I used Furutech at the speaker end. |
Clear Day Cables make a great jumper cable. They are solid silver and so affordable you might as well just try them out and besides Paul offers a 30 day money back guarantee. Tried Nordost jumpers that were much more and felt the Clear Days were just as good if not better. You can spend a lot more but good luck on that. |
|
@dgarretson
Could you please give me a link to the exact wire from Rio Grande you referred to above? I am interested in the 8 gauge. Thank you!
|
|
@dgarretson Great and thanks ! Decent pricing I might add. Ok. one last request. How about a link to the foil you used for your main cables? Did you end up using the foil as jumpers over the round wire? Do you find this wire is not thin and fatiguing? I ask because that has been my past experience with silver. Perhaps the foil is best?
I want to order various gauges and play with designs if this wire is great sounding. I bet folks like Clear Dsy order from this site. |
Each speaker wire conductor is a stack of four or five 1/4" flat silver ribbons, each wrapped separately in plumber’s teflon tape. It sounds similar to Duelund foil. Each AC power cord conductor is a twist of ten 20awg .999 dead soft silver round wires, totaling around 10awg. The key to avoiding that thin fatiguing sound is to use .999 dead soft fine silver (i.e. soft annealed)-- not hard wire. It is resolving without sacrificing smoothness and warmth. Also using Total Contact graphene paste at the terminations... https://www.riogrande.com/product/999-Fine-Silver-14-Strip-26-Ga-Dead-Soft/101078 |
To clarify, I use silver foil for long speaker cables, but 8awg silver round wire for jumpers. It's difficult to use bare, unterminated foil as jumpers. And for jumpers, why would one want to resort to spade terminations with degrading solder and metal-on-metal junctions? |
|
@dgarretson
Any reason you stacked them vs parallel (side by side) with a slight say 4-5 mm gap between the two or three runs. |
I’m unsure which approach offers the least capacitance. I stacked them partly for aesthetics, but mostly so that the compact stack, bound together with one final jacket of teflon tape, can be drawn easily through a silk jacket for damping. For shielding, the silk jacketed bundle is then pulled through a tinned copper braid tube and finished with tekflex. Both ends of the copper braid shield are soldered to external ground wires. The ground wire at the amp end connects to earth ground. The ground wire at the speaker end connects to the metal driver baskets. |
Ok. I would think stacked is much higher capacitance. Curious why you felt the need to shield these speaker cables? Sorry for all the questions, but your build sounds most interesting to me. |
My shields on DIY speaker cables and PCs are inspired by an audio friend's extended experiments with this approach and with grounding boxes applied across an entire system of cables, components, and speakers. Also, by some extreme techies on Computer Audiophile forum who tried multiple layers of shielding on DC umbilicals, AC cords, and ICs with undiminishing returns. So far I've only tried it as a controlled experiment on speaker cables and PCs-- and was rewarded in both cases. Whatever speaker cables or PCs you use, you might try it with cheap tinned copper braid off ebay. |
