Is Speaker Termination Required?


Had a very interesting conversation with an engineer at work today and I need you guys to clarify something for me. This �Senior Electrical Engineer� told me that he has never terminated his speaker cable to his amp or loudspeakers he uses bare wire connection, he told me this elaborate reason why, but the end result was �it�s the best connection possible�

He is using an older McIntosh and Ohm speakers and has had them connected since the 80�s and the connection is as good as gold he told me.

Is there any truth to he train of thought?

Thanks

Kev
thegoldenear

Showing 1 response by mlsstl

Whenever you add a termination connector to a cable, you add another connection that requires electrons to jump from one material to another. That increases the likelihood of resistance due to a change of metal types, physical separation and corrosion impeding the connection.

However, this is true for the internals of electronics as well as for speaker wires. Pull the top of your amp and you'll see dozens, if not hundreds, of soldered or crimped wire connections plus components soldered to circuit boards.

Solder is usually tin/lead or tin/silver or other metals. Therefore, even on a circuit board you have a change of materials between the component lead and the circuit board copper foil.

So on a theoretical basis, it is a valid idea to use unterminated bare wire on your speaker connections.

In the real world, one has to ask if, for example, 201 connections are significantly worse than 200.

At least speaker cable has easy access making it no problem to frequently check for corrosion and to tighten and clean them.

You might want to try it both ways in your own system and see if you prefer one over the other.

Me? I don't find it makes a difference as long as your terminations and connections are appropriately sized, clean and tight.