What is your preferred speaker connection? (bare wire, spade, or banana plugs)

I was wondering what people's preference is when it comes to connection methods. I personally use bare wire I would like to try banana plugs most of my setup is vintage and I'm not able to use banana plugs. I'm not sure about spades I have not tried them I will get around to them someday...

 

Banana plugs.




Without any form of gain control!

 

banana plugs; easy to use and to clean imo

 

I've been bananas for quite some time, but I do like the simplicity of bare wire.

 

Bananas always...

 

Banana plugs.

 

Bare

 

Bare

 

Banana, but spades can make a tighter connection.

 

I like banana plugs.

 

First choice: Spade connectors. Bare wire for everything else.

 

Spades on the speakers bananas on the amp end.

M~

 

when possible; they largely avoid any chance of a stray wire strand's creating a short.

Now, how long before somebody raises the question, "So what's the sonic effect of red vs. black banana plugs?"

 

Bare wire, and that's all my maggies will take unless I crimp in some kind of connector.

 

Spades always give the most positive connection. I have used locking banana's when there was no choice.

 

Plugs

 

In theory bare wire is best as it minimizes extra/unecessary metal/metal interfaces.

This is THE best speaker cable/speaker interface. A large surface area of contact *and* it maximizes the "real area of contact":"apparent area of contact" ratio. Real area of contact= metallic bonding. Not to mention no unnecessary metal/metal interfaces unlike bananas, spades, and solder.

"seamless from end to end and without traditional, sound-degrading soldered, welded, or crimped connectors"

FIDELIUM SPEAKER & INTERCONNECT CABLES. Thin foil (ribbon) design derived from electromagnetic wave and waveguide physics to minimize skin-effect phase errors. The skin effect properties of FIDELIUM are up to 33 times superior to copper or silver.

Having said that, do I think I can hear differences? No. Do I think there are some (with really, really sweet systems) who can? Yes, but not a lot.

 

Banana. It’s easy for me to unplug the cables from the speakers and drape them up and away so the cleaner doesn’t have to worry about them laying on the floor behind the speakers

 

Hydraulically crimped full round Cu lug

 

From a theory point of view, I think spades are better than bananas. Why? It is all about creating metallic bonds and one can tighten spades with much greater forces/pressures than the outward force a banana provides. This will create more bonds. Having said that, my main system uses bananas. I like talking theory, but dont sweat it. And as mentioned I dont think I could hear differences bw any of the connections.

 

Bare

 

I find spades aesthetically pleasing, but I can’t say I’ve ever done any experimenting to see if I perceive any sonic advantage.

 

I use banana plugs, but the recent entrance of a curious, active kitten into our home has me rethinking that. I’d think she could manage to pull a plug out of a speaker (I’d think by accident, not like she’s intending sabotage or something), which could then come to rest on the other plug or terminal, which of course could be disaster when I next turn the amp on. So far, I’ve just been taking a look back there before turning stuff on, but I may consider moving to spades just for the physical security.

 

Bare wire

 

Wire works fine. It may be the best for a single conductor.

Clean all surfaces
Strip ~ 1.25"
Poke it thru the hole and wrap it around the binding post 1 full turn. Make sure no insulation is pinched under the nut.
Tighten well