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To terminate.. or not

Greetings everyone,
As I sometimes like to move speakers to different systems/locations in my home, I am considering terminating some new cable that I plan to purchase.

What is the wisdom around here regarding termination? Is bare wire that advantageous to terminated? Spades have any inherent sonic advantage to BFA's?

Do most audiophiles use bare wire?

Thanks in advance. I'm not interesting in obsessing on this one. Rather, I want to order some stuff and listen to some music on my new speakers!
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rja's avatar
rja
2,358 posts
 
I'm sure they work great for most and they are a nice design. I was hooking up 4 spades into each one which I found to be a hassle, much easier with standard type binding posts.
c1ferrari
464 posts
 
Hi Axle,

I believe one rational for spade connection is it affords greater surface area for electrical contact.

Regards,
Sam
axle
49 posts
 
Yes, surface area makes sense. But do you really get contact over the entire surface? Both the spade and the binding post are probably not as flat as they may seem to the naked eye. The result is contact only on highest spots of the top surface and the lowest spots of the bottom surface. But if you add a lock washer on top of a star washer, now you are guaranteed surface area coverage plus tension force.
axle
49 posts
 
You can shield the entire cable to reduce radiated EMI except for the termination. So how do you reduce radiated EMI at this point? The answer may be geometry of the termination. You probably want something flat and wide because it dissipates the magnetic field versus something long and narrow that concentrates the magnetic field. This is one possible reason for a spade over a banana.
c1ferrari
464 posts
 
Yes, should the washer(s) produce an ideal condition whereby pressure is applied relatively uniformly across the contact surface area - voila! :-)

Vbr,
Sam
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