Spades, bare wire oxidizes and will weaken and break when clamped and unclamped in a binding post. Tinned wire will solve these issues but its actually contact area is very small in comparison with a spade.
Terminate This: Bare Wire vs Connectors
Called a local dealer to inquire about the types of “High Performance” spades they stock. Their reply: “Why do you want to terminate your speaker wire, when bare wire is the best means of transferring the signal?” I’ve heard this before. I can’t remember why I started using spades in the first place. Perhaps I felt that because whatever the heck Rhodium was it sounded exotic enough to be the next best thing in signal transfer. Was it to prevent oxidation? Anyway, what say the Agon community – bare wire or connectors, why and why not??