Why terminate speaker wire?

Thanks everybody this is a great learning experience.

@erik_squires 

• Most surface area to surface area connection

What is the mechanism that would provide that?  The wire has to go inside the terminal or the wire has to go inside the connector that goes inside the terminal.  I guess the connector could have more internal surface area than the terminal and then a smoother surface at the terminal end but wouldn't tinning the ends accomplish the same thing and reduce the connections by half?

Someone mentioned a gas tight seal.  That is exactly right but not just for corrosion resistance.  Electricity will not flow from one surface to the other unless they are in contact.  Gas tight means no gap between the mating surfaces.  And in order to achieve that the wire must be deformed.  Copper is a good choice because it is ductile.

The ideal mechanical joint is bare wire clamped tight enough to deform the copper strands.  The old hifi gear had nice big bolts to facilitate that.  The problem is reusing the wire, especially the expensive stuff.  Every time the wire is unclamped the ends need to be cut in order to reuse the wire and get a proper gas tight seal.  Even the old receivers with the screw terminals were enough to deform the copper strands of the speaker wire.  So yes, if you are installing electrical outlets in your house and you use the screw terminals, then you should see the copper wire deform when you tighten down the screws.  If not, get a bigger screwdriver.

A properly crimped joint will have less than 5 microOhms resistance.  Mechanical cycling of the joint either by temperature cycling or vibration can cause the joint to loosen and resistance to increase.  Don't worry, it takes hundreds of thousands to millions of cycles for that to happen on a good joint.  If the joint is conveying power it can start to heat up which accelerates the degradation of the joint and thus driving resistance higher which leads to more heating.  Bad news.  

Spade or bananas on speaker wires is a good compromise for very expensive cables.  If the terminations are done properly the degradation to the sound is perhaps zero but the speaker/amp terminals for spades should be stout enough to handle a wrench for tightening.  

I've tried both bare wire and many types of terminations over the years. My experience mirrors the varied responses in this thread, Downside of terminations could be dissimilar metals, but could be upside as well in that one could flavor to taste.

tonywinga argument makes sense of terminations.

Seems solid core vs. litz wire would make difference as well, bare solid core would make great contact, litz not so good. Bare litz core always gets discombobulated and spread all over the place when cinching down on terminals, hard to keep twisted.

Gas tight low mass = great connection as @tonywinga  above astutely understand. I good ratchet crimper is excellent or a Stakeon. Solder and heat shrink are your friends also. Cardas and wonder solder are my preference. I also am a fan of ring terminals for speaker connection. Finally a super beefy Cardas connector and amp and speaker make an excellent upgrade.

for those anguished about an extra connection but running speaker wires of > 6-8’ you are doing yourself a sonic injustice… but I guess that’s another topic…

FTR:  Silver oxidizes so most silver looking copper wire is actually tinned.

@danager 

Compared to bare wiring I think a well made terminated connection offers the most consistent and largest surface area.  Consider a crimped on / cold welded spade.  You have 100% of the wire coming into contact with the spade, and then the very large surface area of the spade makes the contact with the speaker terminal.