A few days ago, I bought a pair of 2CEs in excellent condition. I've been a little disappointed in them because they didn't sound much better than my 2Cs.
But just now, I checked the backplates to make sure the bananas were snug and I couldn't believe what I saw. The previous owner had inserted cheap copper foil jumpers between the bi-wire terminals. I must have been so anxious to connect the 2CEs that I didn't see them.
So I pulled them out. I'm using bi-wired speaker cables and don't need jumpers. The difference is amazing! They sound awesome now. Clearly, the previous owner never heard his speakers at their best.
Now I understand why Richard Vandersteen strongly advocates bi-wiring for his speakers:
"The effects of bi-wiring are not subtle. The improvements are large enough that a bi-wire set of moderately priced cable will usually sound better than a single run of far more expensive cable... Some of the benefits of bi-wiring seem to come from the physical separation of the high current bass and low current midrange/tweeter wires."
It made me curious as to what kind of jumpers (if any) come with brand-new bi-wireable Vandersteens. Anyone have them?
