To bare or not to bare

[royphil345]

Clean, bare copper wire will sound at least as good as using any type of terminal, if not better. The problem is that copper oxidizes fairly quickly compared to the materials most terminals are made of, and even terminals will require cleaning eventually. You'll probably have to clean the wire ends or chop a bit off every now and then... Not something you'd want to do often with an expensive set of wires. Soldered spades or locking bananas would probably insure a better, maintenance-free connection over a longer period of time, and could be easily cleaned when the time comes.