Connecting Amp to speakers

Hey, well there is the alternative Speakon connector from Neutrik which has seen some adoption in the consumer world.

I will say that I think a good banana with a tight fit is better than spades. I've never had a banana plug just come loose one random day, but this has happened to me with plenty of spade connections due to excessively hard speaker terminals and spades with no spring action to keep it together.

I am lazy so I do like the ease of banana jacks.  Here is an audiophile test question:

Speakers frequently boast of having 5-way binding posts.  What are the five ways that speaker wire can be connected to such posts?

What are the five ways that speaker wire can be connected to such posts?

Bare wire

Banana plug

spade

lug

the wrong way

I have “locking” banana plugs on my Blue Jean cables. I feel these provide the best combination of surface area and positive connection. Erik is right about the spades, I have these come loose on my KEFs. 

I like bananas for ease of use and the fact that they stay put.

I like BFA plugs, full surface-area coverage. Currently using locking bananas and am pleased with the connection over standard bananas.

When you read the specifications for speaker cable, you realise the manufacturer takes a lot of care and attention in its production to iron out any anomaly that may or may not influence the signal quality, then a banana plug is fitted, an inch of turned steel, may have been gold plated, fitted to each cable end, is that too simplistic  

I use spades on the amp (tightened with a nut driver) and locking bananas on the speakers.

I had my monblocks fitted with SpeakONs (as mentioned by Erik) and love them. Benchmark Systems says they provide the lowest measurable distortion of connectors they tried; they are easy to connect and disconnect; they are impossible to short out; and they are inexpensive and plain looking. This list includes many reasons why they never will be adopted by high-end audiophiles. They are just too simple, effective, homely, and inexpensive to be audio jewelry.

Good question. For some reason I always looked at banana suspiciously. So I only used them once. I always use spades… but as @erik_squires said, he has never had a set of banana fall out… I have spades fall out with some frequency.

I’ve found that binding posts on speakers come in two widths. I think spades make better contact than bananas, but when I changed to my latest set of speakers, the spades were too wide. Luckily there are spades with a variable size...

The correct answer is:  spade, bare wire, pin (the small cross drilled hole in the shaft takes a solid pin attached to the wire), banana jack, and double banana jack.

in my experience all connection methods can be made to work fine... it is a matter of preference and how much work is needed to make a certain way work

My vote is for banana plugs. Sometimes you think that you have a spade really tight...and it falls off when you move the cable a bit.