Spade Lugs for Vintage Mac Amps

Jaybo/All,
A reply from Frank Gow @ Audio Classics did reveal that they still do carry an adapter called the "Outposts" which consists of the Cardas Billet Spade Lugs, 13ga wire, and a Block of Paduk, with Cardas Binding Posts.

An excellent product no doubt, but makes little sense for me, when I'm considering making my own new dedicated for my system DIY Speaker Cables from scratch.

I can use the Cardas high grade specially made Rhodium Plated Spades directly onto the cables, (@ $11 a pop) thus eliminating the cost of the pretty Paduk Wood, and 5 ways. Since I need 8, $88 is not all that outrageous of a sum, considering I'm using the very best product available. The cost of the Outposts I believe were $149 each, and since I would need two, just the Cardas Spades would be the smartest way to go.

Since these Cardas Rhodium Spades are Billet, I assume they would have to have the cables soldered to them. These don't appear to be crimpable. Mark

i tried to post a link yesterday to the device that was mentioned above but it got moderated out of existence, probablly because its being sold elsewhere.

if you would like the link to the "outpost" device email me & i'll send you a link.

Jaybo, Thank you very much for the help, I'll give Audio Classics a holler, and see what they have available for these Vintage Amps. I seen mention on the Web of an Item Ausio Classics call "Outposts", but when searching their Site could find no info about them.

I love all you guys, I really do!, and I deeply appreciate all the help I've gotten since I joined this site. A very valuable, and great resource here, and I'm very glad I became a member here. Mark

call audio classics. they have the mini's at an inexpensive price.

Sorry my friend, I should've elaborated a bit more, that I'm running two 2105 Mac Amps into 4 vintage L-65 Jubal Speakers, hence I would need four small Spades per Amp, therefore a total of 8 for the two Amps.

A few years back, I upgraded my JBL's from the wimpy push button wire posts that could handle no more than 16ga, to large solid copper Edison-Price 5-ways, so at the speaker end, no problem there using any mid-high grade spade-banana known to man. Mark

Why need 8 when you only use 4 for a pair of speakers?

Supposedly, doing some searching online, I seen someone make a reference to "Outposts", sold by Audio Classics, who is a large dealer of McIntosh goodies, but when I went to the site, I could find no info about these.

I would assume that in general, these would be some sort of contraption that hang off the back of the unit, having small spades that go to the terminal strip, and then untimately terminate out into Spades-Banannas-what have you (5-way binding post)

Somewhere, I seen a set made by someone? (Maybe the Anti-Cables Site, or?) where they used a pretty block of wood, set the 5-way Binding Posts upon them, and then just run leads from the pretty block of wood to the Amplifier.

Certainly, all the pretty block of wood is doing, is adding susbstantially to the cost, and offers no sonic benefit, but I can see the advantage if one has the costly pretty Boutique Cables already, and has no desire to cut them apart to re-terminate them.

For the cost they were probably asking, I would just be then better off using the correct highgrade Cardas CMSS terminations, and be done with it I guess.

As I think I mentioned, it appears the Vampire BAR Spade Lug from Welborne Labs appears to be a cheaper alternative, but I would like to get confirmation from others with Vintage Mac Gear, that these do indeed work.

I'd gather that much of the Vintage Mac Gear from way back in the 70's all used pretty much the same narrow spaced Barrier Strips. Mark

I just got barrier-strip-to-banana connectors from Ebay. Works great with any banana cable for only $10. Cardas also made them for a while but when I inquired about them, they never got back to me. That was three years ago. Arthur