Bananas rule, spades drool. End of discussion.

I have been told many times by folks more knowledgeable than I that the best sound is from finger tight connection and using more will degrade the sound. I have never gotten curious enough to test this. I tighten just enough to stay on… which means over time they loosen. Hence occasionally one falls off when I straighten the cables.

I have been told many times by folks more knowledgeable than I that the best sound is from finger tight connection and using more will degrade the sound.

I cannot comprehend why that would be, but there is a long long list of stuff in that category.  And maybe that would explain why B&W did not use hex heads for their binding posts. 

@immatthewj

Yes, me neither, but from my in depth studies on a dozen other things that shouldn’t matter, but do… little stuff that other folks with more experience than I recommend that don’t cost much, I’ll just do. Not worth the hours of fiddling to figure it out.

Yes, most speaker manufacturers put finger friendly devices that a wrench will not fit. I have Sonus Faber… oblong tighteners that the tightest would be to use your thumb to help turn. 

but from my in depth studies on a dozen other things that shouldn’t matter, but do… little stuff that other folks with more experience than I recommend that don’t cost much, I’ll just do. Not worth the hours of fiddling to figure it out.

I agree--no argument here.

After seeing this thread, I went and inspected my spade connections on the speakers and amps. My amps are McIntosh and they provide a handy wrench. None of my terminals were loose after two years. McIntosh uses very good terminals and I have very good spades on my speaker cables from Morrow.