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Best Speaker Cable Terminations

I recently purchased a Krell KAV-400xi and a pair of Proac Tablette Reference 8 Signature loudspeakers. I'm making my own speaker cable and will use a single cable with four 10 gauge wires inside of it, for bi-wiring.

I'm going to terminate the cable with spade connectors on the speaker end and was planning to twist the ends together for connection to the binding posts on my Krell. Now I'm wondering if four 10 gauge wires, twisted together, would even fit in my Krell binding posts.

Any ideas on the best way to do this?
worldwide
8 responses Add your response
rathbone
22 posts
 
It has been too long since I bought any. Part Connexion has a lot of good stuff like Cardas connectors (which are quite good...trust them, despite not being a big fan of their cables).

It is harder to find good z-plugs. Analysis Plus cables like Oval 9 use z-bananas and sound good.....maybe A+ sells them? Hard to go wrong with all copper connectors spade or banana....be careful when buying because a lot are BRASS coated with copper and/or gold and not as good. Cardas coats copper with rhodium to prevent oxidation.
worldwide OP
58 posts
 
Rathbone, can you link me to some of the connectors that you mention. I haven't purchase anything yet and would be interested in the Nordost and Cardas products.
rathbone
22 posts
 
You might want to re-think using 4 10-guage cables. Lots of copper for the low in a bi-wire is often great, and is recommended most of the time, but it can be bad for the mid/high. There is a reason most pros and cable companies in bi-wire rigs use smaller guage. Hard to maintain precision, speed, etc in a larger cable.

Spades are great, but do consider that Nordost chooses z-plug banana for a reason (Vahalla, etc). I like Cardas rhodium spades after z-plug. Skip WBT offerings...too expensive and too colored for me.
carl109
134 posts
 
I'd do my best to fit the cable straight into the binding posts if possible; the less connections the better.

It's true copper oxidises, but this happens slowly on the exposed copper (not the bit clamped inside the post), and it's nothing that can't be fixed by trimming an inch off once a year.

I noticed what to me sounded like more open upper frequencies (especially in some vocals) when I eliminated the banana plugs and went to bare cable a while back.
worldwide OP
58 posts
 
My main concern was fitting four 10 gauge wires into a single spade. Maybe I should go with two spades and two banana plugs. That would give me two wires soldered into each termianation?
porziob
316 posts
 
One could make a case for locking banana plugs.
audiophile36
17 posts
 
use spades all the way around would be the best IMO.
cpk
190 posts
 
My suggestion would be try to put spades all around if possible. Bare wire oxidizes and will fatigue from being clamped on.
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