2. cables
  3. 146550-118236

Please help me clean up this stupid speaker cable mistake

I ordered off Ebay yesterday a pair of new fifteen foot Audioquest Rocket 88 speaker cables, the single bi-wire type with banana plugs for $650. It seemed like a good price. There are two banana plugs on the amp end of the cable, four banana plugs on the speaker end of each cable. They are for my new back ordered Magico A3’s, due for delivery by the end of this month. My stupid mistake is you cannot bi-wire Magico A3’s. So I have to combine recombine the biwire leads into single leads, which you would think would be simple.

I called Audioquest and spoke to a tech there. I asked him if the existing banana plugs on the Rocket 88 could be unscrewed. I could then twist two bi-wire leads together and place them back into a single banana jack if they would fit. Either that or replace them with spades, hoping the individual connectors on the Magicos were big enough to accept two spades. The tech didn’t know if they could be unscrewed. Do any of you know if they could be unscrewed and if so would the existing banana plug be fat enough to accommodate two leads.

His suggestion was to buy a set of four Audioquest 500 series spade or banana connectors, and replace the current ones. He though they would be wide enough to accommodate two combined leads and I wouldn’t have to solder them on which I’d like to avoid. They use Allen head screws to hold the wires in place. They go for $70.00. Do you know of any comparable quality screw on banana or spade connectors that aren’t so pricey? I was trying to be frugal in the first place with this purchase without sacrificing quality. The ones that are on the Rocket 88’s are silver plated if that’s relevant.

Sorry for being so long winded and thanks for any suggestions.

Mike
skyscraper
skyscraper OP
829 posts
 
audiorustty and folkfreak. thanks for your suggestions. They may just solve this problem at zero cost with no rewiring necessary. I’ve yet to receive shipment of the A3’s, so don’t know exactly what the binding posts look like to confirm if I can do as you suggest. I tried to find a picture of the binding post online the other day but no luck. The online instruction manual didn’t show them either.

I’ll put off buying any parts now until the A3’s arrive so I can see your suggestion is workable on their binding posts. You would think they’d be the same as what’s on the other Magico’s that folkfreak has and wired that way. My old Dahlquist’s DQ-10’s have only that hole in the binding post and have been hard-wired since the seventies. You are both my heroes now. Thanks a lot. Excellent ideas.

Mike
kymanor1
48 posts
 
Hi, yes ther are tons of different banana plugs and spades with screws on eBay.  Take a look.  
creekmaster
22 posts
 
I was able to use my rocket 44 bi wires on a set of focal 1038 be ,I put one lug in the horizontal hole and the other in the banana plug socket ,not sure how the magico’s are set up .i could send a pic if you like .  Mike 
skyscraper OP
829 posts
 
Creekmaster, thanks for offering to send a pic, but I'm good. I emailed Magico asking if they had a similar binding post setup to what you describe, but got no response. I'll just have to wait until the A3's arrive to see if they have the extra hole in themas you describe. I bet they do, but you never know.

Kymanor, I have, thanks.

Mike
skyscraper OP
829 posts
 
I did hear back from Magico today. The A3’s do not have an extra hole on the binding post you could a place a second banana plug into, or a bare wire for that matter. So back to square one.

I’ll most likely re-terminate one banana plug on each cable with a spade. I’ll then connect the remaining banana plug termination to the banana plug receptacle and the re-terminated pace connector to the spade receptacle on the binding post.

The 500 series spades Audioquest suggested using have screws that clamp down onto the bare wire, so it should be simple to switch them out, no soldering involved. Is there anything more to re-terminating this type of connector other than stripping back a bit of the wire and then putting it in the new termination to be screwed in place. If the wire is stranded, I’d suppose I’d twist the strands together before inserting them in the terminal, unless someone here indicates otherwise.

Again, Thanks for all your advice,

Mike


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