Some time ago I noticed that the K400 'jumpers' I was using in addition to the connecting plates to connect the three pairs of passive drive inputs on my Espeks were fraying. I removed them for inspection and they pretty well fell apart.
I replaced the plates without the K400 and it was immediately apparent that I had lost a little bit of the magic of the system.
I decided to construct a better solution to address the following deficiencies in my K400 connectors:
- My K400 lengths connected the + and - passive inputs of the treble, mid and bass only. They did not connect the crossovers to the drivers. I still relied on the plates for that.
- Using continuous lengths of K400 for these connectors while connecting the speaker cable to the mid meant that the cable direction of Mid > Bass was the reverse of Mid > treble
- Relying on twisting the cables was not enough to prevent stray fibres from separating under pressure from the screw-on nuts, risking the cables falling apart or even shorts.
I created 14 individual 5cm lengths of K400, paying careful attention to cable direction and marking each 'jumper' with the direction to signal source.
For each speaker, 3 jumper cables are needed to connect the bass, mid and treble crossovers to the direct speaker inputs. Cable direction treats the crossover as the source.
To connect the passive inputs, 4 jumpers are needed: Mid > Bass + and - and Mid > Treble + and -. Cable direction treats the Mid input as source.
I soldered each end of the crossover jumpers on top of an M8 brass washer, so that the K400 will be compressed between the washer and the connector nut. The jumpers are curved like an 'S' so that the cable follows the clockwise direction of the compressing nut.
For the passive input jumpers, two cables are soldered on top of the single Mid input washer in a opposing 'S' shape - like '§', with a washer on each end.
Last night I completed and fitted these connectors and was able to entirely remove the connecting plate.
Result: more magic!
Once the jumpers have burned in I'll do recordings to compare connector plates vs my jumpers.
Thanks Fredrik for the solder. Next task is to replace the bent or fatigued Knekt plugs on my speaker cables.
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