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Securing spade connectors

I’ve just picked up a pair of my favorite speaker cables, Transparent Super, on the used market for a great price. Unlike my old pair, these have spade connectors. 

So it took me maybe 30 minutes to get these cables connected, the actual speaker cables and the network boxes etc are so heavy that it’s extremely difficult to prevent the spade from slipping out of the post. So I’d screw down a speaker side and then the amp end would slide out. 

And thanks to the design of the Transparent cables, the 2 ends are harder to work with because the positive and negative ends are just about 5” long where they split from the main cable, so they are extremely difficult to position and work with. And my speakers have spade jumpers so I’m double stacking the spades on the speaker side which makes it twice as hard to screw down.

I know I can probably send these back to Transparent to get re-terminated but there must be a way to make the spade connectors work… is there a better way to connect these big bastards - do people actually use wrenches to torque down the binding connector posts or is there some kind of trick to make it easier? 

jsqt
jsqt's avatar
jsqt OP
121 posts
 

I just tried the cables on my Technics SU-R1000 last night and man what a night and day difference versus the Vampire binding posts on my Adcom. 

The Adcom had the short Vampire brass binding posts that I was finally able to use a wrench to tighten down…

But the Technics has big grippy plastic knobs that twist up, revealing a slot on the side of the binding post apparatus. The ends of the spades fit perfectly into that slot and then you just twist the post back down with the grippy knob when you’re done. 

I am curious though, what is the point of spade connectors on high end cables? The only real purpose I could see for them would be the vintage screw type speaker connectors where it’s literally a screw. 

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retiredaudioguy
97 posts
 

Can't go bare wire with RSC cable unless the factory did it. 

"The TARA Labs RSC Master Gen 2 cable features a unique structure with multiple small, rectangular, individually insulated Consonant Alloy (a proprietary blend) solid-core conductors helically wound around a central air tube or tube".

I think cutting the cable would indeed be terminal!

 

mark200mph
469 posts
 

My accuphase has a hex nut had to go to harbor freight buy pliers with rubber over the jaws.works great.my krell and pass have no bananna so need spades. Enjoy the fun and the music.you have to retighten the spades every so often.

dhite71
377 posts
 

@jsqt I have had some Transparent Ultra G5 for a couple years and am currently comparing to some Shunyata.  I have swapped them about a dozen times over the past few weeks so definitely feel your pain.  I would kill for some bananas haha.

I get them snug with my fingers and then hold the cable with the spade as close to vertical as I can while carefully tightening the terminal with a wrench.  Be very careful to not over tighten as breaking the terminal off would be a major mess to fix.  I do it a little at a time and then test the cable gently to make sure it is secure and then come back a few min later to make sure it didn't loosen.

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