Bananas rule, spades drool. End of discussion.


I just checked my speaker connections. All using bananas, all nice and tight.

The number of times I’ve had spades get loose instead though.....

Point is, and it really is kind of a tongue in cheek thing, bananas beat spades for long term reliability in almost all setups.  If you have to use a Cardas or Mundorf speaker terminal to ensure your spades stay tight it kind of proves my point.

erik_squires

After seeing this thread, I went and inspected my spade connections on the speakers and amps. My amps are McIntosh and they provide a handy wrench. None of my terminals were loose after two years. McIntosh uses very good terminals and I have very good spades on my speaker cables from Morrow.

By the way, hope you all know I'm not unhappy if you like spades and have never had a negative experience with them.  😁

OP Erik - I always enjoy your informative and well-informed posts. Thanks! 

There are 4 metallurgical options on the Viborg link you provided, 

Each one has a brief summary as follows: 

1) Gold Plated - 【Enhanced Sound Quality】

2) Pure Copper - 【Superior conductivity】

3) Rhodium Plated - 【High-quality construction】

4) Silver Plated - 【High-quality conductivity】

danmar123's reply above compared silver plated and pure copper, preferring the latter. 

What's best for sound quality? 

Over to All... 

Thanks again, 

Ken

 

 

 

 

 

 

OP:

 

IMHO, rhodium should never be considered.  It's just too hard to grip well and doesn't conduct very well.  Gold had the least oxidation, but I love me the silver plated one's. :)

Pure copper is a great choice, but will require regular maintenance.

OK, Rhodium is off the list. 

Presumably the copper needs a periodic Deoxit wipe. I have done that before when using bare wire to degunkify.  

Looks like it's "Hi-yo, Silver, away"!