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Why terminations on speaker cable?

I'm wondering why using bare leads with speaker cable is not more common. There is really never a case when any kind of terminator is going to result in clean conductivity since even if said terminator has more surface area to contact the binding post, it is still soldered to the wires at a single point.

Are speaker cables terminators just audiophile baggage?

I'm going to try some unterminated cables for my speakers.

At the very least I think it will likely be an improvement with HE speakers where voltages & currents never get very high anyway.
paulfolbrecht
rrog
1,958 posts
 
Elizabeth, Isn't all wire aftermarket? Connecting speaker wire is the most basic of tasks.
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dgarretson
2,605 posts
 
Makes a difference. I've been using DIY copper foil speaker cables & jumpers with 1/4" punched holes. This works nicely with Cardas no-stress clamp-style binding posts. With Merlin VSM this has eliminated ten solder joints and ten spades per speaker.
newbee
4,777 posts
 
I like bare wire connections, BUT one must be careful. Multi stranded heavy gauge wire requires some torque when tightening down the nuts. It needs more compression than is readily apparent. What appears tight can be loose the next day and fairly easily disconnected resulting in a potential for a short. I routinely check the connections at the speakers or amps. The only down side is you can't simply disconnect the wires if you are having an electrical/component emergency. A rare occurrence, but......
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
The only reason to have "terminated" wire is to facilitate frequent disconnection/reconnection. Like if you run an audio shop. For most home aplications there are better ways to spend money.
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