Bananas rule, spades drool. End of discussion.

but from my in depth studies on a dozen other things that shouldn’t matter, but do… little stuff that other folks with more experience than I recommend that don’t cost much, I’ll just do. Not worth the hours of fiddling to figure it out.

I agree--no argument here.

After seeing this thread, I went and inspected my spade connections on the speakers and amps. My amps are McIntosh and they provide a handy wrench. None of my terminals were loose after two years. McIntosh uses very good terminals and I have very good spades on my speaker cables from Morrow.

By the way, hope you all know I'm not unhappy if you like spades and have never had a negative experience with them.  😁

OP Erik - I always enjoy your informative and well-informed posts. Thanks! 

There are 4 metallurgical options on the Viborg link you provided, 

Each one has a brief summary as follows: 

1) Gold Plated - 【Enhanced Sound Quality】

2) Pure Copper - 【Superior conductivity】

3) Rhodium Plated - 【High-quality construction】

4) Silver Plated - 【High-quality conductivity】

danmar123's reply above compared silver plated and pure copper, preferring the latter. 

What's best for sound quality? 

Over to All... 

Thanks again, 

Ken

OP:

IMHO, rhodium should never be considered.  It's just too hard to grip well and doesn't conduct very well.  Gold had the least oxidation, but I love me the silver plated one's. :)

Pure copper is a great choice, but will require regular maintenance.