Spades or bananas

I agree with the above posts that there is no difference between the two so long as both provide a "snug" connection.

Also, no connector/bare wire is the best. However, be careful if you are using solid core cable, not to crush the cable in the binding post. And a single point of contact is desirable, especially on the hot.

Of course silver cable needs no tinning. With copper, sometimes yes and sometimes no. Depending on the composition (solid core don't tin) and your willingness to clean the wire you may not have to tin the wire which is better; there is no heat or change in composition to affect the character of the cable. Furthermore if you have to, I'm not so sure about using solder with silver in it (lead is worse) to tin the wire as the silver content may separate and/or color the sound of copper cables.

There isn't going to be any difference if you use quality stuff like WBT. Just be careful, because while almost any spade will make a good connection if it's crimped and tightened properly, I've seen banana plugs that were pretty cheesy and wouldn't trust them as far as I can throw them.

David-the reason it wasn't scientific was the fact you kept taking off cloths to get an "unvarnished sound", and you felt silly because you woke up with a hang over and wearing your girlfriends underwear!!(and you weren't even drinking!) :) sorry I felt obligated to tell them all the truth. FWIW I use spades for piece of mind, I heard a bunch of manufacturer's making fun of people who use banana's, they even had some sort of anti-banana "song" so to speak and all knew the words and were singing it, though I think they may have been drinking :) I find that what the people say who make the gear tends to give the best results, as with most things, not exclusive to audio.
Tim

So if bananas tend to fall out how could this be called a good mechanical connection?The cable and the connector should all be one continuium and if possible the internal wiring of the speaker and the amp should be the same so as to have the same signature!

It doesn't need to be a good mechanical connection, it needs to be a good ELECTRICAL connection; there's a difference. You're flowing electrons, not water (although there were some idiotic water-filled cables on the market a few years back, maybe they need to be spade-terminated!). A large percentage of removable electrical connections are made with spring pressure, not screws. And the big advantage of spring-pressure contacts (including WBT bananas and the Neutrik Speakon connectors) is that they maintain consistent high contact pressure over time, and don't loosen due to thermal cycling, which is exactly what's needed for a good, reliable electrical connection. It's better than a thumb-tightened spade, and not any better or worse than a wrench-tightened spade, just different.