Best way of connecting bare wire to bare wire

Hello BFrank,
While the wire nuts are cheap and effective, they look a bit unprofessional or unfinished. The Neutrik Speakon connectors (NL4FX female and NL4MMX male) would be what I would try. They run about $6 each and have set-screw or solder wire connections. Neutrik claims the contacts are rated for 50 amps! You can find more info on them at parts express-dot-com.

In general I have found Neutrik connectors to be of good quality. As to Antipodes mention of her interest in selling products- it is appreciated that you made this known. Too often there are posts from persons who argue in favor of certain products or types of products without such up front disclosure. After a little checking, one discovers that the individual regularly sells that product or one of a similar ilk. After discovering the undisclosed interest I disregard their further posts as I find the person to lack credibility. While I may disagree with the opinion of someone who has made such an up front disclosure as Antipode has, I would not discard their future posts out of hand.

Thanks for all the great responses - I've been reading a lot lately on this, it seems that solder vs. crimp is an ongoing debate. Quality of solder, quality of join, quality of crimp/crimping tool, type of wire etc etc all play factors. I read somewhere that solder *can* give the best connection, but most crimped connections are as good or better than most solder jobs (especially after some time). Also started looking at the wire nuts and there are a ton of different designs! I never knew it could get so complicated :) I guess I'll start with wire nuts and see how that works for me, since it's by far the easiest and least expensive.

Seems a little silly to be commenting on the quality of wire nuts but you do want to be sure the ones you get have a wire coil inside. Some inexpensive ones are just a plastic cap without any wire inside the wire nut itself. The ones with the metal coil grip much better.

With a soldered connection done properly the solder does not make the electrical connection. The wires are twisted or crimped together, thus making the contact, and the solder is added to prevent things coming apart.

I was impressed with the Speakon connectors which I used as jacks on the wall for an in-wall system, and as mating connectors on my speaker wires. But I think they would be overkill for simply joining two wires.