Speaker Cable Termination

As always thanks for your feedback. I have periodically clipped the ends of the cable or I have re-twisted the ends with needle nose pliers. Both methods result in a fresh connection.

Etran,
I've built up and serviced tons of the circuits you're talking about.
When I connect conductors and circuit elements I ensure the contact of the conductors but not through the solder bubble no matter how nice it looks.
The solder must secure joined conductors but not to act as such so the silver content is only a burden(significantly increases melting temperature) for the technician who does the circuit work and so the quality of a solder joint.

To me bare wire is really the best.Even if you order the cables a foot longer than you need and clip off 1/2" every year , you would grow old before the cables were unusable.

I would think bare wire is the way to go, contact cleaner should work for oxidization but just buy and extra few inches on both sides and clip an inch off every 2 years.

"applying a silver solder to the ends of the bare wires makes no sense since it decreases the contact conductivity"
You got to be joking, how much decreases in % ? Is there fact ? The solder acts like bonding agent to close all the air gaps of the strands to one solid wire for better conductivity. Look at all the circuits in all electronics what do the use to connect all the wires to?

"11-17-06: Marakanetz
Arni,
applying a silver solder to the ends of the bare wires makes no sencei since it decreases the contact conductivity."

Marakanetz, I did not claim any benefits to this nor recommend it; I was just making an observation about pre- and past practice of a cable manufacturer that has actually discontinued doing this. My wording may have been off, I really meant tinning the ends (that is my recollection).

Arni,
applying a silver solder to the ends of the bare wires makes no sencei since it decreases the contact conductivity.
The unit resistance of the solder is more than several times higher than any conventional conductor even with the silver content.

After experienced with bananas, spades and none are working good for me and very expensive so I tinned the ends with 4% silver solder then tight them up to 5 way binding posts. Happy clam.

Frank at Signal Cable used offer and recommend his best speaker cable (Silver Resolution) with just bare wire with silver solder on the ends. For some reason he no longer offers/recommends that option on his website.
Your comment makes a lot of sense, but when I had unterminated 4TC in my system, I observed oxidation and "reterminated" the ends several times. However, following your line of thinking, the speaker termination that introduces the least amount "of something in the signal path" is probably the Eichmann's new "banana plugs." If you are looking at bananas vs. spades in general, I would agree with Newbee, as I also prefer spades.

I prefere bare wires. It's not realy a brainer to maintain. Just clean them once in a while with the contact cleaner. The crimped termination can also oxidize with time and will need much larger effort to clean.

I completely agree with Newbee.

Bare wire is good but it will oxidize and its tough to clean all those individual wires :-). I prefer good spades which clean more easily or locking bananas in that order. FWIW.