Speaker binding posts, looking for quality.

Hi,I have install these Cardas on my IMF PROF.,believe me or not,it have improved the sound over the old original,my speaker cable Fulton gold size booster cable are very well thighten.After many years the Cardas still look like new.I never regret buying them.
 
I don't expect any improvement in sound. But a quality part has it's own value. I spent the money to do a proper job on the rest of the crossovers and I cut corners on the binding posts.

I completely understand. Quality matters, period. The opposite mentality is partially to blame for the degradation of speaker production quality. It's definitely to blame for the switch from walnut veneer to vinyl veneer.

SIDE NOTE: Anything with faux-walnut vinyl veneer deserves to be smashed.
 
Although the OP's terminals look nice now, I think they will tarnish. Of more significance is that they are completely uninsulated. Short circuiting could occur with just one plug falling out/pulled out.

Personally, I believe all terminals should be insulated and so should 4mm Banana plug and socket bodies, especially ones close together.
 
The Banana plug was invented by General Radio in 1924. It was a replacement for the pin connectors on their instruments. There is some argument as Richard Hirschmann, Test and Measurement, in the UK also came out with a similar plug also in 1924.

Why would General Radio create a nominal 4mm (metric) plug in 1924 in the US when they use the imperial system? At 0.15748 inches, it surely was a strange number...

Hirschmann, the German invented it.

1926 ended an idea in one of the 100 most significant patents of the German industry in 20th century. The invention of Richard Hirschmann had a deep influence on connection technology for all measuring and testing tasks of electronics in all fields of life since then.
 
Why would General Radio create a nominal 4mm (metric) plug in 1924 in the US when they use the imperial system? At 0.15748 inches, it surely was a strange number...

Hirschmann, the German invented it.

1926 ended an idea in one of the 100 most significant patents of the German industry in 20th century. The invention of Richard Hirschmann had a deep influence on connection technology for all measuring and testing tasks of electronics in all fields of life since then.

This is a European vis American company thing. GenRad claimed it invented such a Plug in 1924, So did Richard Hirschmann in 1924. The GenRad plug was made to fit in it’s existing test equipment which used pins. The plug that GenRad developed had a single tensioning spring, the Hirschmann plug had the 4 we have today. I am unable to find the dimensions of the original GenRad’s plug But it was not a metric plug. The Hirschmann design was obviously the better one.
 
OK, so this thread is old but I came across it while doing a search & thought a few comments might interest some people. Basically it's my 1st post here, I have been into stereo some decades since my youth but not at the very high end budget. Mostly nice sounding 80s - 90s vintage stuff. Also managed & maintained a church auditorium fixed PA for some decades. OK so PA is not HiFi but I did work at attempting true sound reinforcement and a really picky audiophile said, Wow a church actually doing true sound reinforcement! Also that it was by far the best church system he had ever heard anywhere.

So anyway on the subject of speaker connections or any connection for that matter, IMO corrosion over time is the big enemy and copper is not good for this. This is why most connection contacts are plated. Not restricting this to speaker terminals, most commonly, Gold, Silver, Tin or Nickel plating and Solid Aluminium is also used. Each metal has it's own properties regarding conductivity and galvanic corrosion. The plating is thin so presents little conductivity issue. Though, carrying a signal, changes in impedance can cause signal reflections which is a phenomenon exploited in identifying the location of bad connections in the telecommunication industry. So we probably don't want significant amounts of that happening in out audio systems. While I don't think that is significant with plating, it certainly may be increase with sudden changes in conductor cross section. However, that is not my main focus, so I'll just let it hang there and move on to dissimilar metal contacts.


For best performance longevity against Galvanic corrosion, this is what you can use together:

Aluminium / Aluminium
Copper / Copper
Gold / Gold
Nickle / Nickle
Silver / Silver
Tin / Tin
Nickle / Tin

This is basically why Nickle and Tin plated connectors are popular pro audio choices (they provide 3 reliable & inexpensive combinations).
There are some additional combinations that are OKish, but less so than those above.

Copper / Silver
Nickle / copper
Silver / Gold
Tin / copper

Yes, I know we all use less than ideal combinations but I have seen a whole lot of pitted RCA connectors on 2nd hand gear over the decades.

OFC wire is particularly important as it inhibits corrosion to some extent, but not entirely. Over time, oxidation can travel under the insulation and between the filaments of copper wires. It can very seriously degrade the performance of a cable. I recall a bass player asking if I could repair his very expensive favorite guitar lead. It was constructed of overlapping filaments, each about 10 cm in length (a thing at the time). Air had penetrated the entire cable oxidising the filaments skins, impairing filament to filament continuity rendering the cable in effect open circuit. Trimming the cable ends failed to find any remaining useable length. So while copper on copper is OK, it does oxidise pretty fast, which can lead to a short service life.

What you can do though is seal all these exposed contacts to greatly inhibit oxidation. This is also important for maintaining control component connections such as faders, potentiometers, switches and trimmers etc. People in the PA industry recommended a Deoxit product, F5 to maintain such controls. The same company makes a more concentrated interconnect cleaner and conditioner that comes in a small pack with bottles of red & gold fluids, cleaning tools & cloths. The product is semi-conductive so increases the effective contact area without the risk of a short. To be honest, I have not tried a lot of brands but, I found it works extremely well & is by far the most effective one that I have tried. After solder terminating a cable, I paint some of this one the shield and wires where they exits the insulation to inhibit the ingress of air into the cable, as well as treating all the plugs and sockets themselves.

I know you never hear about all this but IME, provided the whole system is integrated well, this is the next best thing you can do for it's performance and certainly the best thing for extending longevity and minimising maintenance.

PS, I know some will be rolling eyes at my mention of PA and I will be the 1st to agree that probably 99% of PA systems suck really bad. There is just a really low bar in that industry & yes cables do matter and very much so. The most basic issues that are well attested in industry documentation are shielding, system gain structure and impedance matching. Shielding is obvious noise ingress, Gain structure goes to S/N and impedance matching goes to tonality and definition (steeply rising and falling wave form fidelity), the latter being particularly pertinent to speaker cables where the load is so very low. This is all just really really basic, but few take any notice of such things, not realising that cables and connectors are part of these most basic audio principles.

Of interest is that HiFi still use speaker connections that are subject to a shorting risk as the cable terminations are not insulated. The Pro audio standard for some time now is Neutrik speakon connectors. These are self locking so they can't just fall or pull out, they are designed to maintain high contact area. I am, disappointed that these terminations don't seem to support more that 14 ga wire, but of note, there is a 4 way connector supporting 4 x 14 connection which is equivalent to 11 ga wire. So, you could possibly use a twisted 4 conductor cable, or braid several together, bringing the ends into 4 terminations. I think that would suit most people who are happy with a screw clamp connector, except those into super heavy cables like Redgum's 6ga product but I suspect those in that league would be looking to a swaged connector. Then there is the silver crowd, but I don't think they would be happy with a screw clamp connector anyway, though even silver plated wire would generally physically fit it the speakon clamps.

Personally, I like the plane wire connection for it's simplicity and reliability against multiple corrosion interfaces. Just a pain if your swapping gear around much. So, horses for courses and personal preference I guess.

Ken
 
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