2. cables
  3. 1266895504

Is Speaker Termination Required?

Had a very interesting conversation with an engineer at work today and I need you guys to clarify something for me. This �Senior Electrical Engineer� told me that he has never terminated his speaker cable to his amp or loudspeakers he uses bare wire connection, he told me this elaborate reason why, but the end result was �it�s the best connection possible�

He is using an older McIntosh and Ohm speakers and has had them connected since the 80�s and the connection is as good as gold he told me.

Is there any truth to he train of thought?

Thanks

Kev
128x128thegoldenear
mofimadness's avatar
mofimadness
4,992 posts
 
The best connector is no connector.
rrog
1,958 posts
 
All connectors have a sound character. Bare wire sounds the best.
celtic66
1,668 posts
 
He's right. I clipped my highend connectors off my LAT International cables and they sounded much better.
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,229 posts
 
Depending upon what material your cables are made of corrosion can become a serious issue with unterminated cables. Also there are some cable designs that cannot be used without some form of termination.

I agree that some spades/banana plugs, etc. can have a negative effect on sonics, but I don't believe that one can make a blanket statement about all termination being negative. In the better designed cables whatever effect the termination has seems to be part and parcel of the cables overall sound. There are no absolutes on issues like these.
unsound
7,329 posts
 
Just be careful when using unterminated multi-strand cables.
More to discover