Bananas rule, spades drool. End of discussion.

The absolute best it to hard wire everything, no cable ends or connectors, even wire the speaker lead directly to the speaker wires, just support them really well.

Obviously this is not a good option for most and I do not do all of it though I might someday just to see if I can tell a difference, which I suspect will be so.

The less stuff in the chain the more pure the signal simply has to be and properly done crimp connections can be better than soldered ones, less to go through as they are basically welded together.

Rick

I vote for regular bananas.  I was using spades for decades between amp and speakers and once in awhile one of the speaker wires would come loose and fall off my amplifier. Recently I finally discovered the reason I was having problems.  It was because there are different sizes of spades and I didn’t have the right size for my binding posts.  The spades were too big with the result that when I tightened down on them there wasn’t much spade real estate to clamp down on.  I’m not really fond of the locking bananas that seem so popular these days and that’s what I wanted to avoid.  Why?  To illustrate, a friend gave me a Sony AVR just a couple of weeks ago and he  helped me install it.  He was the one that tightened the locking bananas.  I decided against keeping the AVR and could not open the locking bananas.  The spacing of the binding posts was very close and I couldn’t get a good grip on them with either my fingers or any tool for the same reason, the right spacing.   I had to wait days before a handy male showed up who was stronger than I am and he was finally able to loosen them.  So I will repeat myself to say I prefer regular bananas.

Recently I finally discovered the reason I was having problems.  It was because there are different sizes of spades and I didn’t have the right size for my binding posts.

Well, no offence, but not using the correct size of spades (for decades?), or not being able to use pliers to loosen an overtightened nut, that doesn't disqualify spades - it's a different kind of issue.

As for regular banana plugs, what are we talking about?
If it's the multiple spring type, those are more for convenience than performance, as they get loose over time, and are not a tight fit to begin with.

As said above, personally I don't use plugs at all when possible, and basic hollow BFA plugs when I have to.

For convenience and performance, maybe some of those locking plugs are decent, if they don't require soldering, but they still are a big lump of metal and pricey if you want to get the good ones.

Well, not sure if the Viborg bananas I linked are "regular bananas" but they are just as tight today as they were when first used. They also take up less space than the locking kinds.

As mentioned, love WBT for locking types, and boo on Furutech, but maybe I got a fake set?  Send me a complete set of 12 pairs of bananas so I can fully evaluate them again... :D

Spades are usually preferred. When I got my stealth audio cables terminated in banana however, they felt very confident about their specific banana process

In the past they recommended spades but their new process bananas perform 100% as good as the spades, both tested sonically and in measurements. They also bi-wired the ends for me and apparently the bass section is doubled up

I much prefer banana they come out cleanly from the speakers and its easy to make the quick turn

If I was buying a random brand though I would probably look at spades unless I was guaranteed on performance