Hey all,
Just returned from riding my bike across Iowa and am now thinking about putting together some new cables with the WE 16 and 14 awg and Belden 8402 I received just before I left.
My question is whether to solder or crimp - crimping could include either tightening the bare wire in the binding posts or attaching the wire to spades using my hydraulic crimping tool.
The ICs will be soldered to my Furutech FP-601/602 balanced connectors, since there is no crimp option with those connectors but, with the speaker cables, I could either crimp or solder.
Although I like crimped connections for speaker cable I make from bare copper wire, I suspect soldrering is the superior connection for tinned wire, since it should provide a more direct connection between the copper base materials of the wire and the spade. A hand tight crimp through tinned wire is not typically thought to be an optimal connection.
OTOH, tinned wire is typically thought to be inferior to bare copper for audio purposes in every respect, except for resistance to corrosion, so it is interesting how good everyone thinks this wire sounds, particularly since I suspect the "tinning" material of wire this old may have lead in it, and lead has been taboo in the "audiophile" community for several years now (although I have stubbornly continued to use my roll of Cardas Quad Eutechtic solder for all my soldering jobs).
As it stands, I plan to solder all the connections, but I would be interested in hearing from any of you who have tried it both ways.
