Using non-terminated speaker wire?


From all that I have read here on A'gon, my speaker cables should be several feet shorter; but that's not my question.  If I was to shorten my speaker cables and then simply wrap the bare wire around the posts of my speakers, wouldn't that make a better connection than either bananas or spades?  I did read the "bent banana thread" going on here on this forum, and i did a search on the AQ banana terminals, and I could definitely go that way, but just wondering about the wisdom(?) of using bare wire versus terminals.

immatthewj

Ten years ago I was evaluating two different sets of speaker cables in 8' & 6' lengths, and did not like the connectors on one of the pairs I custom made. Prior sets were all crimped and soldered. These were slide-on screw-clamp barrel connectors, no solder. Just did not sound good, connectors got removed eventually.  

I think I was comparing Supra vs. two different sets of older solid core AudioQuest copper #6, #8 or something at the time. #6 Gray was not bad as I recall.    Well, I was ordering different connectors I wanted to try and it was 10-14 days before I received them. Bored waiting, I went and bought some local Audioquest connectors that were not cheap.  I installed them, and the sound got worse, veiled over. Just weird.  I added / removed / added / removed a few times, testing. 

It proved that some speaker wire connectors can impact the sound in an unexpected and strange way. What was a surprise to me was just how much worse it made the sound.   The raw cables without connectors were nothing special or overly expensive. I ran it that way for a while [a few years] until I ended up with pro made cables with much better connectors. Raw can sound better, then there is open exposure and oxidation to the copper and connection itself left raw too long. Try it and see first hand if you have a few stripped sets lying around or can buy some raw from a spool.  See first hand what you think. It's a good test to learn from in any case.  

OP: you are absolutely right. Bare wire makes best connection by removing an unnecessary piece, aka connector. If you are not constantly changing speakers/amps, bare wire is the way to go. That's what I do. Just be sure to get all the litz threads in the binding posts to avoid shorts. 

Thanks, guys; if I remember correctly (I bought these cables nearly 30 years ago) the ones I want to shorten are Kimber 8TC with what looks like 4 individual and insulated blue wires/and 4 black wires on each negative run and the same on each positive run.