Mini-Rant: Human Fingers


I don't have a huge range of experience in this matter but in my limited experience the experience is universal:

My fingers are too large to comfortably use most speaker binding posts easily. It is always tight and tedious. Yes, my hands are big but not unusually so. No, I'm not a clumsy oaf. Quite experienced doing small delicate work in fact. This experience has bridged hi-fi to mid-fi to low-fi.

I can understand this with small or bookshelf sized speakers. But my experience is with tower speakers. I just wonder if there is a reason for this? 

My experience is similar with components. Even my amp which is a huge 100 pound deal with virtually nothing on the back but two balanced inputs and 4 binding posts. The binding positive and negative posts are very close together and hard to tighten for that reason.

Anyway, rant over. Just wondering if there is a reason for not putting enough space between binding posts to get human fingers all the way around them? 
n80

since the days of Fred & Barney, Wilma and Betty, bare wires were the way speakers used to be connected.

some are returnign to that philosophy. get in where ya fit in.

obviously where ever speaker terminals are located is where the maker figured it to be the best place for ‘them’. not us.

I find it highly doubtful adding another half inch or inch between the plus and minus poles will have any effect on anything, but making it easier for end users to deal with when adding and replacing wires.

but it is what it is, I’d not hold my breath on things changing anytime soon.

bananas are as good a way to go as any other. regardless it being on the input or output. in fact with many receivers geography on the rear panels is at a premium and bananas seem to be the right pick.

if adapters are required by choice or need, their influence on the sound is marginal, but depending, often quite distinct.

I believe bananas are my preference for reasons such as these.

I’ve a pair of towers whose terminals are not only very close to each other, but as there are two sets for bi wiring or bi amping, they are set on angled inserts which make it a real hair pulling event to put spades on all the connections. whoa.

If I indeed loved a set of spkr wires, maybe I’d opt into cutting off the spades and going with bare wires. but even using bare wire there are concerns. loosening. oxidation. shorting. breakage.

as for operating on wiring, they make tools specifically designed to strip insulation off most sizes of wires. at least those one would encounter in this hobby. they run from $10 to $25 and are at most any hardware or Adult toy Store, eg., lowes, Home depot, etc. they have dedicated ‘holes’ for inserting the wires and once closed, do a fine job of cutting thru the insulation without cutting into the conductors.

obviously, special strippers will cost more.

usually from $20 to $50 a dance.

RWV .

the Cardas design is unique and elegantly effective, but converting your gear to them most likely difficult, certainly expensive.

gas tight spades far superior to bananas IMO
a low mass spade that can deform is also good, consider the AQ or the excellent Anticable copper


Note that heavy speaker cables can put some stress on bananas, and nobody needs a stressed banana.
@jetter Here is a picture of the binding posts on my Aerial Acoustics:

https://images.nikonians.org/galleries/data/3564/IMG_1124.JPG

As you can see they are 1/2 hex nuts with openings for banana clips. As you can also see there is very little room for everything in there.

And for what its worth I do not like the terminal ends of these Transparent cables. Each of the four ends needs to be longer. Of course if I cut the spades off and put bananas on they will be another 1/4 inch shorter.

@blindjim I’ve got all the tools. I’ve done a little electrical work (house, car, tractor). Having said that, I seem to have a mental inability to really comprehend electricity. Everything I do is by cookbook. I can follow the directions and do the work but I don’t understand it all.

@wolf_garcia They have a pill for that. ;-)
n80 thanks for the picture, now I got you on the hex nuts and as an aside I guess live a sheltered audio life and cannot believe how thick your speaker cables are to the connectors.  Mine are that thick except about 6 or 8 inches from the connector they taper down to be protective but with a much thinner and flexible insulation.