"My experience has been that when someone states
it seems as though there has been a sonic improvement
there hasn't been any change, just what they had hoped to hear."
Isn't that what happens when someone adds any new piece of equipment, whether it is a $10,000 amplifier or a $60 silver preamp jumper? You hope to hear something different and hope that difference is an improvement.
My experience has been that changing the preamp jumpers on my modest AMC SS integrated makes a very significant change to the overall sound of the system. At least on the same level as changing power cords, ICs, fuses or digital sources.
I have three types of jumpers that I can swap out: the stock metal bars, Audioquest premade PSC+ copper jumpers, and custom made silver jumpers. The sounds of these three are very different, and the two aftermarket jumpers sound considerably better than the stock bars.
I would describe the sound of the three jumpers this way:
-stock bars: brittle, compressed and "shouty"
-Audioquest PSC+: smooth, warm and a bit midrange heavy
-custom silver: Detailed, airy and a little forward
I have been listening with the silver jumpers in for a long time and have made several other modifications to my overall system in that period. I just yesterday put the Audioquest jumpers back in for fun and my immediate impression is that both the bass and treble lost some definition and the sound stage collapsed a bit as well. The flip side is that violins are not as edgy or etched sounding and the overall sound is more relaxed.
Since the Audioquest jumpers have been sitting in storage for a while, they probably need to warm up a bit, but the difference in sound between the silver and copper jumpers in this application is even more pronounced than I remember it, perhaps because other improvements in the overall system have allowed me to hear these differences better than before. In any case, my experience is that preamp jumpers can provide a noticeable improvement in experienced performance. And as with other cables, materials make a huge difference, even if it is only a 2-3" piece of silver in a sea of copper wiring!
it seems as though there has been a sonic improvement
there hasn't been any change, just what they had hoped to hear."
Isn't that what happens when someone adds any new piece of equipment, whether it is a $10,000 amplifier or a $60 silver preamp jumper? You hope to hear something different and hope that difference is an improvement.
My experience has been that changing the preamp jumpers on my modest AMC SS integrated makes a very significant change to the overall sound of the system. At least on the same level as changing power cords, ICs, fuses or digital sources.
I have three types of jumpers that I can swap out: the stock metal bars, Audioquest premade PSC+ copper jumpers, and custom made silver jumpers. The sounds of these three are very different, and the two aftermarket jumpers sound considerably better than the stock bars.
I would describe the sound of the three jumpers this way:
-stock bars: brittle, compressed and "shouty"
-Audioquest PSC+: smooth, warm and a bit midrange heavy
-custom silver: Detailed, airy and a little forward
I have been listening with the silver jumpers in for a long time and have made several other modifications to my overall system in that period. I just yesterday put the Audioquest jumpers back in for fun and my immediate impression is that both the bass and treble lost some definition and the sound stage collapsed a bit as well. The flip side is that violins are not as edgy or etched sounding and the overall sound is more relaxed.
Since the Audioquest jumpers have been sitting in storage for a while, they probably need to warm up a bit, but the difference in sound between the silver and copper jumpers in this application is even more pronounced than I remember it, perhaps because other improvements in the overall system have allowed me to hear these differences better than before. In any case, my experience is that preamp jumpers can provide a noticeable improvement in experienced performance. And as with other cables, materials make a huge difference, even if it is only a 2-3" piece of silver in a sea of copper wiring!