Stainless Steel Binding posts on speakers?

I really don't know about steel but I kinda wish they would use more copper. The arguement is that copper oxidizes and then makes for an ugly and nonconductive surface. My personal experience with stripped copper wire is that this process is barely noticable if it occurs at all. The commonly seen brass posts are in fact an alloy of zinc and copper but I understand it is not a great conductor.

Traditionally high end manufacturers tend to use the best conductors they can for speakers and amplifiers. Stainless is nowhere near the best conductor. If not copper, a better idea would be brass...

Mechans is correct about copper. If properly handled corrosion is not a problem.

I hear ya'. The reason I ask is Legacy uses SS for their binding posts on the Whisper XD's and stainless is rated VERY low in conductivity vs. copper and gold plated copper. Seems a very odd choice! This is a GREAT sounding speaker and I wonder how much better it COULD sound if a more 'industry standard' material were used?

I would guess that it doesn't make much difference. Resistance of binding post is most like in order of milliohms* while speaker is in ohms. For the Damping Factor, speaker impedance is mostly resistive and in addition there are inductors in series. Woofer inductor is most likely 0.1ohm. There might be other factors that affect the sound but not conductivity IMHO.

* - Binding post is in order of 0.4"dia corresponding to AWG000 wire. Copper wire AWG000 resistance is 0.2mohm per meter. Stainless Steel is 50x worse than copper but your post is also not longer than 2cm (1/50x1m). Result is under 1mohm.

Are you certain that it is stainless steel, and not a plated metal, like rhodium plated brass?