Will, I made my own jumpers. I used 10AWG multi-stranded OFC cable and 24k gold plated spades. What do you think? I think much better then those stamped sheet metal ones that came with the speakers.
Nice job! It indeed makes a difference in sound! You connected the speaker wire to the panels, which also sounds best to these ears.
And using good quality cables always made more difference in my case then bi-wiring. I don't hear much difference bi-wiring the speakers, but I do when upgrading the cables to better quality.