Are there any issues with connecting speaker wire in this manner?


I'm considering purchasing some 14 awg solid core wire to use as speaker cable.  I will be doubling this up to make 11 awg speaker cable. My amplifiers, Red Dragon S-500, have binding posts which DO NOT have a hole drilled in the center of the shaft for inserting wire (they are hollowed out for banana plugs but that's not what I am referring to here nor do I need).  I'll be connecting the speaker wire without attachments, no spades, bananas, nor pins.  To get a good connection, it would be ideal if I could take the wire and, at the half way point, wrap it around the amplifier binding post, then run the two ends out to the speakers.  Will this work or will connecting the wire in this manner be problematic?  Do I need to cut the wire into 2 runs?  Thanks!

lcherepkai

If you've read my recent posts on using slugs instead of fuses, then you may recall that I've been experimenting with metals less used in audio applications.  To this end, I'm considering trying molybdenum, titanium, and niobium wire.  The latter two are fairly cheap but the moly is pricey.  Also, I don't see any of these wires offered in bundles as typical of speaker cable thus, I'll be using solid core and, in my experience, solid core actually sounds at least as good as stranded wire.  

 

Without using spades or bananas, the binding posts on the Red Dragon amps are a PITA, and wrapping the wire around the post would seem to offer the tightest connection without possibly stripping the threads (which I've done).  I'm obviously not much of a DIY guy and just wanted to make sure I wasn't going wire the speakers up in a compromised or possibly damaging way.  I appreciate the information all have given.  Now to go on an exotic metals shopping spree......

@lcherepkai So for slugs, you have a very short piece with a very large diameter. the higher specific resistivity of the other metals your are trying has little effect.

However, I think in speaker wires which are much longer and smaller in diameter the total resistance will be measurable and I think you’ll see significant degradation from the higher resistance of these materials, especially on bass and dynamic sections. So start with the least expensive.

As far as the original post of solid copper, there is obviously not a conductivity issue and people have been known to conclude that solid cores sound better than stranded so I think your plan sounds very interesting.

I also support your plan to eliminate connectors. connectors can be significant sources of bad connections, especially inexpensive bananas or any non-crimped/or soldered connectors. I use crimped and soldered naked bfa style connectors.

Best of luck,

Jerry

Jerry--won't be using the experimental metals on the bass drivers so hopefully not an issue there.  Would doubling up the doubled-up 14awg wire to a total of 8awg significantly lower the resistance?  At $26/m for the niobium, that's still much cheaper than most decent speaker cable and the titanium can be had for even less.

Why can’t you just start out with using 11- or 10-gauge wire?

If you must use 2 separate wires, twist them together but leave enough length on each to run one on one side of the lug and the other on the other side and then tighten the ends together outside of the lug.

Then tighten the nut down or lug fastener.

ozzy