Most audio tweaks are pseudoscience and rely on real physics mis-applied to music reproduction and supported by pitch-man level “evidence”.
I’d use a glaring example of such being RF shielding or other RF-level noise concerns in speaker cables, … when RF is far FAR from any audible frequency to humans or even a young canine.
In real science, real objective research, you spend much of your time trying to disprove your theory, trying to find any deviation from the conclusion that you have postulated, where in audio people spend all of their time finding supporting (and usually inapplicable to humans and music) “data”.
Raw wire is the best, eliminating as many connections as possible of course, adding fancy connectors and terminals is adding convenience not SQ. However, a good connection is a good connection and there are many ways to “skin this cat” that have no negative audible effect, and in most cases any new/clean connection will have the same effect regardless of the type of connection.
There are methods that age better. We did a lot of research into different base metals and plating in a company where I used to work, and the most important factor seemed to be keeping the pressure up enough to prevent corrosion at the contact point and where practical, dielectric grease to prevent corrosion from creeping in. Soldering is a great example of how to preserve a connection, you make a physical connection (as solder, even “silver solder” is a poor conductor compared to copper) and then seal it together with solder.
There have been studies that showed a significant improvement when a wire is removed and re-terminated, mainly due to the connection degrading over time, and many people who “hear an improvement” when replacing cables with new “upgraded” cables will hear this difference where simply cleaning the connections would have yielded the same improvement.
It is funny that probably the most significant factor in degrading connection quality is corrosion (even on a micro-level) and yet I don’t see a plethora of “audio-grade” dielectric grease offerings (it’s just silicone grease).
Screw-terminal connections, although inconvenient, are a great connection. Crimped and soldered lugs make this more convenient, even more convenient are banana or 5-way terminals, I prefer the 5-way terminals so that I have a choice. Gold plating is common and popular, and even though gold is a mediocre conductor (again compared to copper) it is pretty and it is convenient because it is resistant to most corrosion.
Some of my amplifiers are capable of high-current output in the 20Amp/channel range, and somehow good banana plugs and binding posts with dielectric grease seem to work just fine for me.
