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Spades vs Bananas vs Bare Wire Treated with Caig Deox

There's been a myriad of good discussion on terminations for high end speaker cable.  Spades vs Ban vs bare wire etc.  After much deliberation, the variability in termination contact material and the cost, my conclusion is to forgo any spade/ban termination and run bare 12 awg 200+ strand OFC copper wire.  I plan to simply treat the connection with Caig Deoxit D and Gold series.  

According to their literature the connection is protected on average 5 years.
https://caig.com/questions-answers/#toggle-id-2

Its not the neatest setup, but this is a set it and forget it home audio set-up with sub $5K in equipment in a climate controlled basement that stays 68 degrees year round.  I'm new here and in no way poo-pooing the decision for terminations.  For me, it seems like work I don't need to take on unless someone told be the channel output could be increased by a few db and the distortion decreased by 20+%. 

Anyone see an issue with this reasoning?

Other post history: https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/spade-vs-bare-wire

cp1999
Post removed 
audio2design
1,351 posts
 
Don't do this.

Be aware that it’s best to tin the ends of bare wire with solder to reduce the possibility of breaking individual wire strands.

Do this
About the problem of breaking wires or stray wires shorting, a little dab of solder on the bare wire ends will normally take care of that.





glupson
7,842 posts
 
"...literally not one single person on the whole planet, is going to want my $7500 cable once I've chopped the terminations off. Couldn't give them away."

I'd take them for free (and screw my banana plugs on them ASAP).
noromance's avatar
noromance
9,838 posts
 
Meh...I do not use plugs. Bare wire removes another break and joint in the path. Instead of spending a fortune, look at Neotech OCC cable on PartsConnexion. There's a new thread on 'DIY Neotech' and search for mine with 'UP-OCC'.
hshifi
572 posts
 
Hello,
I would check out  Blue Jeans cables. https://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/speaker/indexmob.htm
At least for your front three speakers and your subwoofer connection. I know people say it never hurts to ask, but it sometimes can especially here. If you have to use bare wire for cost reasons then learn how to tin wire. Use a decent solder with silver in it. Parts express might have some stuff you can use. Also you can dress it up with some nylon mesh covers or heat shrink to make it look nice and protect it a little. There are a lot of videos on making cable on YouTube. Good luck and I hope this helped. 
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