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Crimping bare speaker cable connections

I have DIY cables in my system. I prefer the bare wire connections vs. spade connections but I don't like the inconvenience of periodic cleaning of corrosion from the wire. I see that there are WBT crimp sleeves availble from www.partsexpress.com. These are to be used as part of their terminal installation. I'm wondering if I crimped one of these sleeves on my bare wire end and placed it through my speaker's binding post, would I solve the periodic corrosion problem? It seems to me it would, but I need to know from those wiser than I. Would it deter the quality of the signal?
mijknarf
lugnut
1,190 posts
 
Solder the bare wire.
ketchup
699 posts
 
here's what i've picked up reading post all over the internet:

you dont want the signal going through dissimilar metals... that's why using bare wires is the best. the down side is cleaning the corrosion, as you have stated.

most people say that crimping a spade conector is best, but most spade connectors are not pure copper, but either gold, silver, or silver and rhodium plated. my amp and speakers have gold plated posts, so wouldn't it be better to use a gold plated spade to minimize dissimilar metals? it seems as everyone is using the silver or rhodium coated spades, though.

wouldn't it be best to crimp on a pure copper spade and somehow seal the ends to prevent corrosion? then you would only have to clean the spade periodically which should be relatively easy.

anyone with more knowledge care to respond?
mikesinger
572 posts
 
uhmmmm solder the wire. just be sure to use a decent solder & spade
kotta's avatar
kotta
649 posts
 
I believe there will be oxidation on the wire no matter what unless the joint is made air-tight somehow. I had to reterminate the amp end spades on my Cardas Quadlink 5c w/bananas because of my new int. amp's poor binding post design. I will say, Cardas did a very proper job, soldering and then filling in the spaces w/??? In my experience, bare wire sounds the best. I would buy a little extra wire and reterminate every yr. or two. If you were to put a "sleeve" on the wire, I would make sure there was proper contact and I would soldier at the ends. But still oxidation would occur, IMO. BTW, Radio Shack has a really fine locking-style "Gold series" banana plugs. (Cat.#278-307). To recap, spk. end, bare-wire and reterminate as needed. Amp end for convenience, terminate w/ spades or bananas.
mijknarf OP
266 posts
 
Kotta, I think you nailed my situation... my amp dosen't accept bare wire well, so there I'm using a Furutec spade with two set screws (see pic at http://venhaus1.com/fp201.jpg). Reterminating my speaker ends periodically is not a problem only an inconvenience. I have read many posts both here and on AA, seems to me there is no one best solution to avoid re-terminating.
Lugnut: do you have experience with soldering? What solder would you recommend?
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