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Bananas? Spades? Bare?

oscar09

oscar09

DUCK!
So im about to get some speaker cable from Monoprice and i just thought of something that has always kept me wondering. Is it better to use bare speaker wire to the speakers binding post or do banana plugs and spades provide the same results? I dont really have any knowledge on this subject. I ask since i am about to order the speaker wire i could get some spades or banana plugs. Thanks for any info!
 
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None of them affect the sound, but for convenience I prefer bananas, particularly when dealing with crowded receiver backs. Most vintage units won't accept them, though.

For those pesky push-to-insert terminals, I find twisted bare wires work best.

Always power down equipment when kerfutzing with wires and when working with bare wires, always be wary of hairline shorts.
 
If you are moving wires a lot, bare ends can be a pain unless it is solid wire. For that reason I usually terminate them either with a spade or banana, sometimes just solder.
 
Personally, I use gold plated banana plugs as a matter of convenience and have never encountered a connection problem, and they are convenient for swapping gear. Bare wire is acceptable, but can be a PITA for making frequent changes and will eventually fray and can cause shorts unless you solder the ends. FWIW, Krell recommends spades as the best form of speaker connection, and actually changed the binding posts on their amps in the 90's to no longer accept banana plugs. There are also solid pin-type teminals that you can purchase to provide a single solid connector that will work in those cheapie spring/clip terminals that prevailed in the 80's and 90's.
 
oscar09 said:
So im about to get some speaker cable from Monoprice...
Click to expand...

Be careful with the Monoprice wire. The last spool I bought had the blue stripe mixed up. I ended up ditching the Monoprice wire and went with CL2 rated 99% pure copper wire (the Monoprice wire is CCA- Copper Clad Aluminum). You can get it on Amazon for a decent price.

I use banana plugs for connections to speakers and these for connections to amps/pre-amps/receivers (Note: all my amps are from the 1980s):

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000WXBY7I/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i02
 
If you are planning to swap gear around, some type of quick connect (spade or banana) might be the best way to go.

I use straight wire as my systems generally get setup and left alone for years, if not decades. Clip, Strip, and Twist. In the event I do need to move a system like I did 10 years ago when I got a new system for the living room and moved the old system downstairs to my office, I clip the ends and strip down to fresh wire.
 
I like the convenience of banana plugs whenever possible but use the locking type of plug because I find regular banana plugs otherwise too easy to accidentally pull out of binding posts.
 

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michiganpat said:
I usually tin my speaker wire ends with silver solder and call it a day.
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^^^ THIS.

Except I use regular solder.

Simple, stops the major problem with twisted wire, cheap, easy, and the wires will then work with all speakers. The few speakers I have that have banana plugs on the back have adapters to connect twisted strand wire.
 
jsisk said:
If you are planning to swap gear around, some type of quick connect (spade or banana) might be the best way to go.

I use straight wire as my systems generally get setup and left alone for years, if not decades. Clip, Strip, and Twist. In the event I do need to move a system like I did 10 years ago when I got a new system for the living room and moved the old system downstairs to my office, I clip the ends and strip down to fresh wire.
Click to expand...
I always tin for one and only one reason, one stray wire shorting across is bad news for the majority of Amp/Receivers out there. A stray strand is so thin and easily missed that it's just not worth the risk. With screw terminals I use spades with the bent tips, allows me to "hand" the spade so my hands are free to use the screw driver and hold the wire.

I totally agree with banana plugs where it applies to quick change. They certainly are convenient for this. Are they better? No.
 
Markw said:
None of them affect the sound, but for convenience I prefer bananas, particularly when dealing with crowded receiver backs. Most vintage units won't accept them, though.

For those pesky push-to-insert terminals, I find twisted bare wires work best.

Always power down equipment when kerfutzing with wires and when working with bare wires, always be wary of hairline shorts.
Click to expand...

Maybe you can help me on this. I'm been wanting to use spades to connect to the back of my W90's (The connectors are REALLY-close together, to the point where I worry about the cables getting all-fringed-out and shorting out on each other, or worse, a cable falls/gets pulled off the terminal on one side and then shorts out on the other one). I love these speakers, and it would kill me to have either them or my 2000x get fried. Anyway, here's a picture to show what I mean (Got the picture from Google... I think it's the back of one of kfa888's W90D's):

746755802_Drpuo-L.jpg




____________________________________________________________________________________

Listening to Metallica's "Ride The Lightning" (US 1st-pressing LP 24/96 vinyl-rip)
2000x > W90's :smoke:
 
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Gang-Twanger said:
Maybe you can help me on this. I'm been wanting to use spades to connect to the back of my W90's (The connectors are REALLY-close together, to the point where I worry about the cables getting all-fringed-out and shorting out on each other, or worse, a cable falls/gets pulled off the terminal on one side and then shorts out on the other one). I love these speakers, and it would kill me to have either them or my 2000x get fried. Anyway, here's a picture to show what I mean (Got the picture from Google... I think it's the back of one of kfa888's W90D's):
Click to expand...
Those old terminal strips can be a real PITA since they are close to each other and small. What I would do is get hold of some small, plain, crimpable spade lugs, not the big, fat boutique style that's all the rage. Maybe from an electrical supply store if all else fails.

Of course, this might make using big, fat cables unwieldy but these speakers weren't made for gigunda amps to begin with. 14 - 16 gauge should be sufficient.

Crimp 'em on the wires and then, if possible, connect them to the speaker terminals from the opposite sides, that's to say from the 3:00 and 9:00 positions. If the spades aren't insulated, which is a possibility, then some electrical tape around the non-spade parts will offer added insurance.

My 40-C' have knobs (instead of plain screws) that screw down over threaded posts (kinds like early wanna-be binding posts, only for one way only) and are on a recessed panel in the back of the speakers and I used this method when they were in rotation.
 
Those old terminal strips can be a real PITA since they are close to each other and small. What I would do is get hold of some small, plain, crimpable spade lugs, not the big, fat boutique style that's all the rage. Maybe from an electrical supply store if all else fails.
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You can actually find some pretty decent "normal" sized gold plated examples wherever car audio wiring products are sold.

I found them in bulk on ebay a while back. I don't remember what they cost, but it was quite reasonable for a hundred of them blistered in packs of 4.
 
bowtie427ss said:
You can actually find some pretty decent "normal" sized gold plated examples wherever car audio wiring products are sold.

I found them in bulk on ebay a while back. I don't remember what they cost, but it was quite reasonable for a hundred of them blistered in packs of 4.
Click to expand...
That would be great if they are small enough.

Those screws can be really, really close to each other and are quite small in diameter. A tight fit around the screws themselves is desirable. If the openings in the spades are much larger than the screws themselves, a slight shift in their positions could create "interesting results.
 
These were "Streetwires" branded if that's of any consolation, and they'll fit a shielded barrier strip, the kind with the dividers between the screws.

I think they're sized for 16ga max, but i've coaxed 12 ga in them by prying the connector open a bit and sacrificing a few strands of copper.

Still available in hundred lots cheap, PM me for a link, i have absolutely no affiliation...................

smallspades.jpg
 
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If you're not entirely a purist when it comes to the original appearance, you could just knock out the rivets and replace that little panel with a barrier strip or spring terminals or binding posts. For a more reversible solution, you could remove the screws without removing the panel, and run wires out of the holes to an external connector. I guess that would be a sort of dongle.
 
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