Recommendations for top-notch banana speaker cable connectors

I used to agree with the preference for spades, but the new BFA bananas (suggested by reubent and others above) offer better and more contact with the binding post than spades. I’m incredibly happy with the audioquest SureGrip100 BFA/Banana (Silver). They are crimp on connectors and form an excellent bond with the cables, much better than set screws. So between the stronger, larger contact with the binding post and the solid crimp connection with the cables, these connectors (or any other connector of this design) offer an extremely solid connection between the amp and speakers. They are also inexpensive, which is a big plus. Regarding auxinput's worry about getting 10 awg cables into the connectors, I wouldn't worry. My cables are 9 awg and I was JUST able to get every strand into the connector, though, being made from cat 5 cable, the conductor strands are rather stiff.

Indeed. These new BFAs of all makes are such an elegant solution. Their simplicity and effectiveness is just so freaking Zen.

@whitesix (why can I only get @ to work half the time?) Get a good pair of crimping pliers. I bought some at Lowe’s for $10. Wire stripper crimpers won’t cut it on these. 

This shouldn’t be an issue with 10awg, but if there’s space around the cable (if you use a higher gauge), it will deform the connector less when you crimp it if you fill the space with strands of speaker wire. I had to do this with my cables on the speaker end because I biwire to the speaker terminals, thus it is no longer 9awg, but 14awg and 11awg.

Sweet Jesus. I hope that makes sense.

Hmm, my audio quest plugs were crimp on.. I'll have to double check which model I bought. I crimped instead of soldering. I lean towards crimping because of the cold weld, which I think is more durable than solder. But really, I doubt it matters, as long as the wire/BFA connection is solid. 

@geoch that’s exactly why I don’t solder. I crimp the ever loving crap out of it. Then heat shrink it.

For AC I do the same with copper spades, but give it a could of wraps of plumber’s tape before I heat shrink. I’m probably just doing it wrong, but solder seems to weaken after repeated connect/disconnect.
But that’s just my finding. I never decided to try to improve the solder connection and just focused on better crimped connections.

That being said, the quality of the crimp and the connectors used affect the sound.

Everything affects the freaking sound.
It never ends...

@whitestix I’m even more confused now. I used the SureGrip100 BFA/Banana (Silver). I looked on their site and they say it’s a cold weld connection, which means crimp. The 100s aren’t supposed to have screws..

I’m psyched you’re happy with them. The new BFA style blows my mind with it’s simplicity and solidity. I’m sure playing around with even more refined versions can bring improvements and, like @geoch says, you can refine your connection to the nth degree, as you so choose.