Spades vs Bananas vs Bare

[Stereomaniac]

Any thoughts on the best connection for speakers. Mine have the three way binding posts that will accept all three connection methods. Things I have read suggest that putting connectors on the bare wire will help to reduce oxidation. I am leaning towards spades.

Follow up: Does anybody have any experience with the twist-on/compression connectors? I have always beena crimp-man myself. I would think the twist-on/compression connectors would not be a solid and might losen with time?

[Mr Peabody]

Spades are generally accepted as being slightly better than bananas because of the surface contact and being able to tork them down under the post for a tight connection. Some of this criticism has been overcome by more expensive bananas some have like a spring load that holds the plug in the hole more firmly and another type you can screw the sleeve to tighten the banana in the hole. Bananas may also be more convenient if you think you may have to unplug and plug the speaker's frequently.

I'm not much of a DIY guy so I can't help you on the best way to attach.

[Stereomaniac]

Thanks. That was kind of what I was thinking. I am using tributaries bananas on my amp because the choice was banana or spring clip.

[JSE]

I have used all three and have never heard any difference between them. I use bananas simply for the "ease of use" factor.

** One thing with spades ** Make sure you have enough room to use them. Sometimes they can be hard to fit. I have seen some post cubs that are very small and it can be hard to get a spade in the small space. This is especially true for todays HT receivers.

In terms of how to connect them, I think both are fine but crimp-ons would be more secure.

[Mr Peabody]

I agree, I would be amazed if you'd ever hear a difference as long as the connection remained good. I had a very heavy pair of Audioquest which had bananas attached. One of the bananas slipped partially out and I definitely heard that. The sound in that channel went lower and slight distortion of the sound as well. Spades torked under a quality post, this isn't likely to happen. With that being said my HT and stereo systems share the same main speakers so for convenience I also use bananas there. So far no problems. But the Siltech and Transparent I use now are constructed quite different from the Audioquests I had. The Audioquest had 6 black & 6 red shielded strands per cable and a thick jacket over that, so they were thick, heavy and didn't have much give. They also don't sound as good as the other two.

[Stereomaniac]

Thanks for the advice. The spades will be going on the speaker binding posts only so I should be fine in terms of space. I thought about bananas, but it would put my speaker wire pointing at a 45 degree angle in the air. I don't like to put my cables under stress. Using spades it would be a nice 45 degree angle toward the floor.

I am finding it tough to get crimp style spades in my area. I am running 8 ft of monster XP cable which is about 16 gauge wire. The only spades I found were for 10 to 8 gauge until I lucked out at Radio Shack. They had some nice 16-14 gauge gold plated crimp on spades. Should work just fine? A spade is a spade? Don't think I need to order $5 spades from the Web.

[Dual-500]

Bananna's are fine as has already been alluded to.

They are fine up until you run gobs of power into a 4 ohm or lower load then they will heat up and go limp.

That should not be the case for your application. Hear the difference? Maybe some can, I can't.

Some can witch water, see into the future, read minds and may other mystical things - I can't.

I do however, use bananna's for low/mid powered applications.

[snodog]

Yeah funny, I suppose there are those who can hear when a cable is under stress as well.
I have not used banana clips but just twist the wire and screw it down. I have noticed that when I end up having to move something (as seldom as it is) the wires become oxidated a bit and so I resnip them. Of course there is no difference in sound but I dont like the thought of it and had a car battery quit working on account of oxidation. Do the wires in the plugs end up like this?

[Dual-500]

^^^ I dress the wire ends and tin them with solder for permanent applications and haven't had any oxidation or corrosion issues.

Without solder, I honestly don't know.

[pixelthis]

Yeah funny, I suppose there are those who can hear when a cable is under stress as well.
I have not used banana clips but just twist the wire and screw it down. I have noticed that when I end up having to move something (as seldom as it is) the wires become oxidated a bit and so I resnip them. Of course there is no difference in sound but I dont like the thought of it and had a car battery quit working on account of oxidation. Do the wires in the plugs end up like this?

I always solder my plugs on.
I HAD TO CHANGE the spades that came with my monsters, they wouldnt go on my receiver, too large. The shack was selling bananas connected by soldering, made by monster.
And oxydation isnt the only problem with "bare wire".
There are two reasons for using gold plate, no rust and no electrolosys.
TWO DISSIMILAR metals TOGETHER will produce a weak current, this promotes rust,
and sometimes the two will fuse together, this is basically how a battery works.
If just one connector is gold plate this problem is solved.
I was selling a sony VCR to a girl and she thought I got gyped when I started talking about the gold plated plugs.
"But they're on the back where people can't even see them!"
geeeze

[O'Shag]

Bare wire is best. The two negatives are, that its sometimes more difficult to connect, but the bigger downside is the higher risk of oxidization. I've tested all scenarios pretty thoroughly, and the results are always the same. Bare wire will produce subtle but noticable improvements in clarity and frquency response.

[Mark of Cenla]

I like banana plugs for their ease-of-operation fator. My stuff is not so hi-fi that I would hear any difference. Peace.