My first McIntosh component was an MA6200 integrated amp, purchased used from an audio retailer in 1988 while it was still a current model still in production. The speaker terminals took bare wire only and one had to hold down the spring clips with one hand while you inserted the wire into a little hole with the other. My first impression was that It was a flimsy method but it sounded great driving my Thiel speakers. Later I had the unit modified to convert one of the speaker terminal pairs (the MA6200 had 3 pairs) to accept banana plugs om pre-terminated wires. I could not discern any diminishment in sound quality and it was a hell of a lot more convenient and the wires could not be accidently pulled out.. Current MAC equipment take bananas or spades. I haven't noticed whether you could clamp bare wires in lieu of spades - I suppose you could - but my ears are not golden so as to detect any difference, I default to convenience.
What say you binding posts or direct wire?
If I can get away with it I don't use BP. I find even the best like Mundorfs etc all sound inferior to direct wiring. Seems illogical to me to use costly cables hooked up to a binding post and then having just hook up wire after the posts. I get better-sounding results just by using quality speaker cable wired directly into my networks with the same cable type after to transducer.
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Perhaps someone will inform my why any form of connection isn't fine as long has it has non-oxidising large contact areas and can be tightened good and tight.... I don't see why the topology should have any effect. It might be argued that some systems are easier to work with but none of them takes more than a few minutes to connect. |
For many many years I just rant bare wire connections from my amp to speakers. I just switched to a very neat array of banana plugs. When I installed the banana plugs I noticed the tarnish, grime whatever on the ends if the wires and what a mess it all looked. Now, I can say I noticed a big improvement in sound. My amp seems to put out more power that I can see on my meters, more definition, more high end etc etc. Perhaps the old connections needed the cleaning and retiring but I am more please with the banana plug connections. All looks neat clean and sounds better. That’s a win for me. |
@johnk
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