Topic: Bananas or Spades

[Genghis Cougar Mellen Khan]

What's your speaker termination preference?  Sometime you're limited by what gear you have, but which termination type do you prefer and why? 

What guages/conductor types are you running? (copper/silver etc...)

[Kyle]

I am running leegeddy's BBee Miagi II Speaker cables with right angled bananas. They work well for me because the terminals on the 3000es aren't the strongest so they seem to relieve stress. I used the ra's on the speaker end because I need to keep my cables off of the carpet - the ra's made that very easy (and it seems like less stress on the terminals). The leegeddy cable is 12guage and fits well in the bananas.

edit: makes speaker placement easy if you need to disconnect - plug/unplug

[cshepherd]

I prefer banana plugs.    For me, it's as much a matter of convenience as anything.  I do like that the 'fit' is consistent from binding post to binding post.  Eight gauge seems to be the common size used in our solid state systems.  We had to have Omega send out some 16 awg wire for their single driver speakers.  We recently found out they don't perform well with heavy gauge wire . 

My current favorite speaker cables are the Basic Clef from Gutwire, which are all copper.  Van den Hul's 'The Breeze' are my second in line.  They are made from an amorphous alloy of copper, silver and zinc.

Chris

[macdaddy]

We recently found out they don't perform well with heavy gauge wire

is that right..? do tell...

_____

i always preferred b-clips - they seem to be the most secure connection to speaker binding post, but everything i have read says that spades are the way to go...

[lds490]

Bare wire or spades.

I hate banana plugs because of the stress they put on the terminals.  I need to try out some right angle bananas, which should reduce the problem.

I've been running Clearview Golden Helix cables from Mapleshade for the past few months and have been very impressed.  Contrary to everything I've heard about speaker cables, they are very thin (maybe 14 AWG), solid (not stranded), silver plated copper.  Mapleshade claims that they out-perform cables costing 20 times as much, but they puff their products relentlessly.  Still, you can't go too far wrong for $85 (with a money back guarantee).

[cshepherd]

We recently found out they don't perform well with heavy gauge wire

is that right..? do tell...

I don't have any personal experience with this yet, but apparently small, solid core copper wire is supposed to be what single driver speakers prefer.  I've used 8 awg on the Almarro 5w SET to drive two way floorstanders with excellent sound.  It should be interesting when the coaxial speaker cables get here later this week.  We'll be listening to them with both single driver and two-way speakers powered by the Almarro.

Chris

[spyder9]

Canare Starquad w/ Cardas spades.  Homebrew.   

[Nick's Picks]

i'm all about the spades.  At least on the speaker end.
I do like bananas for the amp end.  depending on the posts. 

[kindms]

segus dogstar military silver with bananas

I dont see the added stress on the speaker end. the Klipsch i have have a angled post which seems to balance out any stress the cable weight might cause. Also I have the cables anchored to my cheesy 'entertainmnet' cabinet with zip ties just to keep them from catching on stuff etc.

the 1 issue i have with bananas is the needed rear clearence on the amp end in my setup i dont have as much space to give in that area so its a little tight. But as mentioned above the conveince factor is the big thing for me