Does the quality of the spades matter

Pure copper

I think it was the great Enid Lumley, who after extensive listening tests gave pure copper the final nod. Edson Price used to make and market those in excellent quality. But then I am no expert in "metallurgy" and I would think, that the result would also depend on what material the metal in your binding posts is. I reckon gold on gold, or silver on silver, copper on copper would give the best results but have never really tested that hypothesis for myself in any serious fashion. Copper on copper works best for me, the only drag is, that it needs to be cleaned quite often. Cheers,

Ozfly makes excellent sense to my mind. I'd follow his advice. Cheers,

Well, of course copper spades will have to be periodically cleaned and the connections retightened, that goes without saying and I doubt that a really gas tight junction can be made down to a molecular level and yes, metal migration is indeed a problem. Bad connections are audible. I can clearly hear improvement, especially in the highs, whenever the spirit comes over me and I clean them all. When sibilants become sssibilants, that is genereally the signal for me to gnash my teeth and rend my cloths first and then get going.