I just bought a Linn Classik and a new pair of Klipsch Energy CB-10's as a back up system. Using bare wire, which is the best connection. Just cut some new wire every few months and you'll be fine. I have bananas on the amp end. Happy listening.
I use bare wire at the amp and speaker. I feel it's best to not have termination. Nothing is more pure than the wire that you are using with nothing to interfere. I don't take my cables on and off much so the convenience of termination is not an issue. There was a sonic improvement when I went naked on the ends.
One of the local salons ,who shall remain nameless, told me that it was less then prudent to not use solid silver spades on my silver kimber. The reason being to avoid the oxidation of the silver wire. He started to write a quote at $45 each for twelve spades. Upon my questioning the guy's math he stated 'with a system of my caliber it would foolish not to atleast bywire'. Up until then he had never asked what kind of kit I owned. When I told him there was only one driver in the cabinet he looked kinda puzzled as there is at least two speakers in all cabinets. I told him that I needed three feet of wire, and the guy immediately doubled my measure and exclamed that I needed at least eight feet to sound good. I told him. . .No! Three feet total and started laughing to bust a gut. You know he threw me out of the store.
No, I prefer the convenience of leaving the connectors on and it would be difficult with the flat speaker cables I use. I do bypass the binding posts at the crossovers by using them to pinch the wire feeding the crossover and the spade connector together instead of passing the signal through the binding posts. Probably about the same effect as removing the cable ends and nothing is modified.
04-13-11: Lewhite One of the local salons ,who shall remain nameless, told me that it was less then prudent to not use solid silver spades on my silver kimber. The reason being to avoid the oxidation of the silver wire.
Avoid oxidation of silver wire ? Not good advice. Silver Oxide (aka Tarnish) is a better conductor than silver itself. That is why older silver cables sound much better than new ones...
There are no connectors on my DIY silver ribbon speaker cables.
Two flat silver ribbons each wrapped in wide Teflon tape, then placed back to back and wrapped again. At the ends, I just folded the ribbon lengthwise and managed a bit of origami to get the right angle and separation of the ends. Then I cut a notch with small scissors and fitted the end to the binding post.
Every year or so I unplug and clean the tarnish off and polish the exposed silver, then clamp them again.
Used spades for a short while and figured that it's just a waste of money to have speaker wire terminated. I might implement adding speakon connectors and plugs once I feel that I'll need to plug and unplug speakers often. That's the only valuable plug-connector to have between amp and speakers.
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