Did I insert my banana plugs in the right slots?

My JBL Studio 530 speakers have a total of 4 slots: 2 slots for LF (low frequency extensions) and 2 slots for HF (high frequency extensions). So the speakers do have biamping capabilities, but I am using only 1 amp and have no desire to biamp.

In this picture, I inserted my banana plugs in the 2 left and right slots on the back of my speakers for LF (low frequency extensions) at the bottom and left the 2 left and right slots at the top for HF (high frequency extensions) alone.

Did I do this right?
Should I insert 1 banana plug in the left LF and the other banana plug in the right HF?
Do my speakers sound too warm because I didn't use HF instead of LF?
Please give me some tips.

 

If the high terminals and low terminals are jumpered, which they are, it doesn't matter. You can use either set of terminals. You have them plugged in fine.

 

If you dont have a Bi-Wire speaker cable then what you did is fine. Doesnt matter which one you use as the jumper on there will carry the signal over.

BTW this is an example of a bi-wire https://www.amazon.com/Bi-Wire-Speaker-Premium-Bananas-Assembled/dp/B00SPVINKK

 

It looks to me like the two sets are jumpered (metal strip between them), so it technically shouldn't matter unless you remove the jumpers, presumably by loosening the lugs on the top ones. Understand this is my assessment just looking at the picture- I do not have these speakers!

Edit- see others beat me to the punch... glad to know they agree...

 

You are good to go! Enjoy the music!!

 

Thanks for the input! So I am in the process of testing another set of speakers which are the KEF R3 and they don't have any jumpers/metal strips.

The back of the Kef R3s look like this:



Do I still plug the banana plugs into the LF only or is either fine no matter what?

 

I would put the nuts back on the lower binding posts because they will hold the jumper bars firmly in place. The electrical connection between the bars and the posts may be good enough without the nuts, but it would be safer to use them, and besides, you don't want to misplace them because you might need them at some point in the future.

 

Thought this thread was about something else hehe

 

Hmmm... I assume the "link" thumbscrews either break or connect the lugs... looking at the arrows, I'm guessing that clockwise will link them.

 

"Simply insert Tab A into Slot B..."

 

Good catch !!! YES, put the nuts back on ...! You might have to pop some plastic plugs out of the nuts to allow the bananas to be used with the nuts in place. Don't worry, this is safe ... seems manufacturers use these plastic plugs to ... discourage folks in the UK from plugging mains cables in or something. But you definitely want nuts to secure the jumpers so the connection is tight and not intermittent or not made at all ...

Seems like for the KEFs, they have an 'internal' jumper mechanism, so rotate the knobs fully 'clockwise' until snug to connect the two sets of posts. Then it serves as a solid jumper so you can plug in the bananas to either the top or bottom sets of posts as above ...

An alternative to solid metal jumpers is a short piece of speaker cable but you're probably not worried about that. When I got my Analysis Plus Oval 9 speaker cables, I got some Oval 12 short jumpers and use those in place of the solid jumpers. Can't say I hear a difference ...

 

I put them back on. Are you talking about these?



Also every speaker comes with at least 1 left black peg and 1 right red peg.
And they look like this:



Each JBL Studio 530 speaker came with 2 black pegs and 2 right pegs firmly plugged into each binding post.
For each Studio 530 speakers, I only removed 1 black and 1 red peg from the lower binding post (LF one) and left the 2 top binding post pegs alone because I wasn't using them and I didn't want them to be unnecessarily exposed.
But I just removed all 4 pegs (in both LF and HF) from each speaker (8 pegs total). Was I supposed to do this and could it cause any adverse effects down the line?

 

The knobs for all 4 binding posts (includes LF and HF) are already firmly on. But what do I do about the 2 "Link" knobs in the middle? Do you want me to loosen them or something, or do I leave them alone?

 

No, you are fine, I think some of the posters above are just mistaken in how they think the straps are retained.

 

When the link knobs are turned all the way clockwise they make an electrical connection between the upper and lower posts. In other words, it's exactly like using the jumper bars on the JBL speakers. In that case you can connect the amp to either the upper or lower posts. If you want to do biwiring or biamping you need to turn the link knobs all the way counterclockwise to break the electrical connection.

The plastic plugs are just to prevent people from putting live wires that are plugged into a wall outlet into the connections. Assuming you don't have anyone around who might do that you don't need the plugs.

 

The jumpers on the KEFs are internal. Plug into the bottom terminals and turn the link knobs clockwise to connect the two sets of terminals.

 

Sorry, I (and the other poster) was talking about the original speakers (JBL Studio 530) with the metal straps ... the lower set of posts didn't have the nuts on (in your original picture). For the KEFs it may or may not matter if the nuts are on? but better to leave them on and snug if it can be done that way.

Yes, the pic with all 4 nuts on the JBL Studio 530 speakers is the way they should be, with the nuts snugly tightened (finger tight is OK). Don't use a wrench or pliers on them like I did once and snapped off a binding post ... arrggghhh.

 

Sounds like you need a torque wrench!

 

So for the Kef R3, all I did was turn the Link knobs clockwise and plug in 1 set of banana plugs at the bottom (LF) and none for the top (HF). Did I do that right?

I'm listening to the Kef R3 so far and while I noticed some improvements, some of the songs I listened to so far sounded better on the JBL Studio 530s and Kef Ls50s.

I'm testing with the subwoofers off. I'm using an Emotiva A-300 (amp) and TA-100 (preamp) to power the Kef R3s and TIDAL Hifi / Chromecast as sources.

 

Yes, that's fine. You could also put the banana plugs in the top, or put one in the top and the other in the bottom. It doesn't make any difference because the top and bottom posts are connected to each other inside the speaker (as long as the link knob is turned clockwise).

 

Are these brand new R3s? Mine bloomed to full sounding-goodness after some good hours were put in. No subs are in use and have not missed the 52hz and below that apparently I'm missing. Mine are sitting 36" from the front wall.

 

Just showing Bi-Wire on my main system. The other pic is from my back surround on my home theater setup I didnt feel like buying or making 75 foot bi-wire cable so I use the Jumper on those

 

KEF R3 at $2000 MSRP SHOULD sound MUCH better than the <$1000/pair JBLs and possibly LS50s ... BUT as is said if they're new they'll take a while to loosen up ... and the R3 has a <3 ohm dip in the bass that the driving amp may not be really happy about. In fact it's ~3 ohms around 40Hz and again around 150Hz. The phase angle is near zero though so it's not a crazy reactive load like some speakers. But maybe the amp is just happier with the others.

See review measurements ...

Play for a week with moderate/maybe a little goosed sound level with some bass-heavy music ...? if you can. That should allow the if-new drivers to settle in, loosen up, whatever. My speakers were very bass shy for 10s of hours then bloomed nicely.

 

Hi Sub, maybe I missed it,but what amp are you using to drive your speakers?

 

He mentioned an "Emotiva A-300 (amp) and TA-100 (preamp) to power the Kef R3s and TIDAL Hifi / Chromecast as sources". The Emotiva is listed as 150W into 8 ohms at 0.1% distortion and 300W into 4 ohms BUT at "1%" distortion ... so it's not as happy with low impedance loads, at least at high power. Probably at normal listening levels with other than rap music it's probably fine. But maybe not into the 3 ohm (in narrow ranges) load of the KEF R3? I haven't looked at what the JBLs are impedance-wise ...

Ah, and it isn't clear he's using the same pre/amp to drive the JBLs ... and I don't know what TIDAL HiFi / Chromecast are really. I assume TIDAL HiFi is a high bit rate streaming service (yes, uncompressed FLAC files, should be good) but does Chromecast preserve the fidelity? These and several other questions remain ...

Seems if the R3s are keepers (and the Emotivas are the only pre/amp used) maybe a pre/amp upgrade is in order (of course, I love spending other people's money!).