Why terminate speaker wire?

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.

• Convenience connecting
• Lack of oxidation
• Reduced chance of shorts (no rogue strands)
• Looks
• Most surface area to surface area connection

so it's an oxidation issue?

One of the reason for silver plating the copper wire is to stop the copper from oxidation. Second reason is for ease of soldering. I use the wire below 12 AWG M22759/11-12 PTFE wire (bare ends /12'' long.) It makes excellent speakers cables. IMO: Speaker wire termination adds more resistance to the cable. My rationale, is shorter speaker wire with less connections is a good thing.

Mike