Pure Silver vs: Copper Speaker Jumpers

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by lyle1

Oh NO!!!..., I have unleashed a monster.

[jdandy]

This morning I removed the pure silver jumpers from my PMC EB1i's and reinstalled the brass jumpers so that I could perform an experiment. After I had the solid brass jumpers reinstalled between the woofer, mid, and tweeter terminals I conntected the speaker cables to the woofer terminals. Using the CD Paul Brown - The City, I chose the track "Cosmic Monkey" because of the opening cymbal taps, and various other midrange to high frequency sounds. I played the track twice, and repeated the first 20 seconds of the track a couple more times to keep my memory fresh on the cymbals.

I then moved the speaker cables to the mid range terminals. Now the brass jumpers are feeding the woofers and tweeters, and the midrange drivers are direct connected to the amps. Playing the same track again, I noticed improved detail to the sound of the cymbals, and the way you could more clearly hear the tips of the drumsticks hitting the metal. I wasn't able to notice any difference in the lower octaves. The bass still seemed well defined and tight. The high frequescies were pleasant, but without the crystal sheen and air that was present with the silver jumpers.

Next, I moved the speaker cables to the high frequency tweeter terminals. The brass jumpers are now feeding the midrange drivers and the woofers, with the amps connected direct to the tweeters. Pressing play to restart Paul Brown's "Cosmic Monkey" track, I notice the cymbal taps at the beginning of the track lost some of the liveness to the drumsticks hitting the metal. the same was true for the sound of Paul's electric hollow body guitar. A certain clarity to the harmonics had deminished a tiny bit. The high frequencies in the tweeter's range above 3.8kHz seemed perfect, and shimmered with clarity.

What I discovered this morning is the PMC EB1i can have it's voicing controlled, or if you prefer, altered by using the factory brass jumpers and moving the speaker connections to the terminals of the driver you want least influenced by the conductive properties of the brass jumpers. It seemed to me as though the woofer was the least effected by this experiment.

I ultimately removed the brass jumpers, replaced the pure silver jumpers, reinstalled the speaker cables to the woofer terminals, and I am back to the sound I like the best. The solid silver jumpers are an improvement to my ears. They do not voice the EB1i into the ear bleed zone, they simply make each driver sound as though the speaker cables were attached directly to their respective terminals. This was an interesting experiment, and I learned something today.

[PHC1]

Thanks Dan, the experiment has confirmed our suspicion that would be the case.

[lyle1]

Hey Dan....imagine the combinations that you just mentioned and add the three different taps from the 501's? How many combinations can you come up with? I know I tried most of them previously, and it was exhausting.....

['cisco]

Thanks Dan for that nice write-up and experiment Now I can't wait for that Silver wire to arrive and start tweaking.

On a side note...I placed those AQ King Cobras....which have silver-coated rca connectors between my pre and Sonos ZP90...they sounded a little bright for the first few hours. But as the day wore on, that brightness disappeared....now it sounds so sweet and clear. I don't know if those cables were previously broken in or not. I must ask that friend of mine

[jdandy]

Lyle.......You got into experimenting with the amplifier taps when you were bi-wiring and tri-wiring. I remember our conversations about it. I am positive I could further influence the EB1i's voicing by selecting different taps, or going the route you previously experimented with, but I am completely satisfied with the results of the pure silver solid wire jumpers, and the 4 ohm taps on the amplifier. My system is in the "goose bump zone" right now. I'm not going to try to fix something that definately is not broken. Now, it's all about enjoying the music.

[jdandy]

'cisco.......I am hoping that pure silver wire will be to you by Friday, providing the Post Office used a fast swimmer.

[lyle1]

Dan, I too am in the goosebump mode, but I don't think it is my Ayre equipment, I think it is the Avatar from Vesuvius....

[jdandy]

Lyle.......I hear you. I can't even tell you if her eyes are open. I haven't been able to get my eyes above her shoulders yet.

[-E-]

Just because I'm nice I'll post again...