Why terminate speaker wire?

There's people that prefer bare, and there's people that prefer terminated. Both sides claim the same improvements in SQ. In theory bare should perform better as spades or banana plugs are another link in the chain that could degrade the signal. The most commonly cited benefits of termination are protection from oxidation, and protection from damage.

Terminal ends are for convenience, they are pretty and they cost money.

Now, the reason I use them, to fine tune the sound. It's as simple as that.

Copper, Red copper, Copper with silver clad or pure silver, nothing else.

Y spades, bullet banana with a knife edge expanding clip or expanding saw tooth bullets. Teflon tape in leu of shrink tube.. 

BIG Nugget, teflon tape sounds better than shrink tube by a mile. THIN is the key..

Regards

If you use terminations, the less metal in them the better.

those Z banana thingies made out of thin gold plated sheet metal with a wiggly slit probably place the least metal between you and the signal out of anything I know - quite cheap too if you know where to look

+1 secretguy! As the French chef says "No diffawrance!"

Depends on how complex the cable is made. Also how stiff or large it is and whether one can physically get the cable around the post or thru the hole and still get a nut seal. Having a neat termination is easier to deal with and less chance of stray windings shorting out. Nicely terminated cable, most likely, will have better resale value too.