Vandersteen Speaker Question


I am trying to audition some cables with large spades from a local dealer. The problem is that the Vandersteen 2Ce Signatures have a barrier strip that won't accept them because they are too large. The cables can't be reterminated as they are store demos. Is there any kind of a spade to spade adapter? Any other ideas?
kmiller5
Just take a 12 gauge wire with alligator clips on both ends and jump it. It'll do for your test.

For my 3a Sigs, I run plain old 14 gauge speaker wire.... Got 250 feet for under 40 bucks. The BIG thing is to keep the 2 pairs of bi-wires away from each other for the entire run. I soldered gold spades on the ends. They were a buck each at a local audio store. My run is 30 feet to each speaker. The amp end has both pairs of wires attached to a set of larger gold spades, hooked up to a McIntosh MC275, 4 ohm output tap. Unbelievably real sounding combo.

Whatever you do, do not get bi-wires that are all bundled together in one outer sleeve, since that defeats a lot of the purpose of bi- wiring in the first place. Keep them apart. Vandersteen says so!!

Incidently, there was no audible difference from spade lugs to just wrapping the wire around the screws. But, I put the spades on to increase the longevity of the connection.

(Read the speaker wire comparison on www.roger-russell.com
It will enlighten you and save you a lot of bucks, which can then be spent where you WILL hear a difference in your system!)