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Vintage Speaker binding posts upgrade - Benefits?

savv

savv

Super Member
Just wondering if anyone here have "upgraded" their vintage speaker
binding posts into the new ones which PE and Madison carry and if yes would you recommend it?

I have a pair of AR 7 speakers that I love which I don't mind having a new look. The original binding posts are a pain to get my QED cables hooked up to.

Ideas, suggestions & pics?
 
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I've done a couple pairs of Polk M10 (the Polk binding posts from that era are notoriously fragile. It didn't really improve anything other than the look and my peace of mind.

OTOH, replacing spring clips or thumbscrews with binding posts would be a HUGE improvement, IMO.
 
savv said:
Just wondering if anyone here have "upgraded" their vintage speaker
binding posts into the new ones which PE and Madison carry and if yes would you recommend it?

I have a pair of AR 7 speakers that I love which I don't mind having a new look. The original binding posts are a pain to get my QED cables hooked up to.

Ideas, suggestions & pics?
Click to expand...

My old JBL L200s had stupid pinch type clips that I quickly upgraded to Parts Express 5 way connectors.
The real issue is if the old posts didn't extend beyond the flat back of the speakers, the new ones shouldn't either -
so you may need to replace the "cup" they mount on to get a deeper offset.

A replacement cup is something like this - http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=260-303

Or - maybe you don't care ...it may not be an issue if you don't lay them on their back much for other work.

FWIW - I just did the same thing for a pair of DCM TF500s - one of the original clips was broken
so I replaced them on both speakers with 5 way posts.

One tip - get a pair of dual Banana clips so you can get the spacing right when you install the clips -
- even if you don't use duals now, do it for later... I didn't when I did mine a few years back and regret it!

I used these posts in the image below - http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=091-340

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I have a few (OK, more than a few) vintage speakers in my basement. They mostly have spring-clip connectors, although some have old-fashioned screw-down terminals intended for bare wire or spade terminals.

Technically, I don't have a problem with them as they are; they all work and I am not one who believes the sound is degraded by lower quality connectors so long as the electrons flow.

However, I am considering figuring out a common system that I can retrofit my existing speakers to so that I can interchange speaker cables more easily. As it is right now, I have some bare-wire speaker wires, some spade terminal wires, some pin terminal wires, and it's a bit of a programming mess.

Either I will update some of the speaker connectors themselves, or find some adapters for them. I believe I have seen some nifty converters on eBay for the screw-down terminals which would let me use pin conntectors, but that leaves the spring-loaded terminals. Some of those work with pin connectors and some do not, in my experience.

But it's a PITA no matter what. My short-term (lazy) solution was to have lots of wires laying around.
 
My Apogees had some plastic terminals which were not terrible, but had problems holding the spades of my (very stiff) speakercable. So I changed them for some heavy duty, gold plated posts. No audible difference, but it looks better and and holds the spades in a tight grip.


BP250G.jpg
 
The po installed cardas binding posts on my big polks. No difference in the sound but they sure do look nice holding the spades securely.
 
I'm doing my JBL L46's as we speak while doing some crossover work and I got the Vampire audio type that are short --very similar to what hjames used. Have to laugh, I used the very same wood it appears on the crossover mounting plate. I just took it a step more and used satin black over the bare wood. Damn near a perfect match to the JBL backs.
 
One additional comment. Should anyone decide to purchase a lot of binding posts for multiple types of speakers, I would recommend getting them with longer back posts to ensure they will be long enough to go through any speakers with thick walls. I've had several speakers wherein the shorter posts would not work.
 
Did the same.

hjames said:
My old JBL L200s had stupid pinch type clips that I quickly upgraded to Parts Express 5 way connectors.
The real issue is if the old posts didn't extend beyond the flat back of the speakers, the new ones shouldn't either -
so you may need to replace the "cup" they mount on to get a deeper offset.

A replacement cup is something like this - http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=260-303

Or - maybe you don't care ...it may not be an issue if you don't lay them on their back much for other work.

FWIW - I just did the same thing for a pair of DCM TF500s - one of the original clips was broken
so I replaced them on both speakers with 5 way posts.

One tip - get a pair of dual Banana clips so you can get the spacing right when you install the clips -
- even if you don't use duals now, do it for later... I didn't when I did mine a few years back and regret it!

I used these posts in the image below - http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=091-340

attachment.php
Click to expand...

These are the way to go IMO. You will want them when you go biamp anyhow.
 
DanO55 said:
These are the way to go IMO. You will want them when you go biamp anyhow.
Click to expand...

Yep - that's my 2 pair were for originally. Now, the lower pair is for full-range signal into the speaker
- the upper pair is for midrange out of the internal crossover to feed an external 2 inch driver & walnut smith horn (see Avatar).
 
Hi
I have replaced them, particularly where the old connector is a screw on a terminal strip (flat to the speaker or amp back.) I see this a lot from the 60's and 70's and it is a real pain. There is then the problem when you lay the speaker on its back for work or packing but I have some flat hard pieces of foam that once held test tubes and they fit right over them to protect and support so no problem for me. I change them because I like to be able to change things around at the drop of a hat and so have bananas on all the cables. When I see a speaker that has the old knurled metal knobs (like the KLG 5) that are as secure as anything but inconvenience I solder a pair of female banana jacks to some heavy wire and add a pair of round shaped crimp on ends to fit the speaker terminal shafts. I shrink tube everything in the appropriate colors of course. Once installed this is as convenient as bananas but does not change the vintage speaker.
 
It's very important that the speaker terminals be 'secure' so that if you decide you want to do it, you can drag them behind your car without them coming undone and flying through the neighbors' windows.
 
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