Shorting the speaker wires

Hi, my preference is banana connectors, spades always seem to come loose, for some reason. The connectors on my speaker cables are the ones provided on my Synergistic Research Resolution Reference FX's, and they are not locking. If you happen to trip, they would be more inclined, I would think, to just pull out without any damage. There are locking types made be WBT and others, so you can check them out. Hope your amp is ok.
Best of luck, Dan

??? Unless the bananas are of the locking type, I think they are less secure and more likely to short (more exposed metal) than spades. Their major advantage is convenience for reconnections.

Kal

I thought the Monsters were locking bananas. Hum........

Some DIY thoughts....

I've went through most types of connectors, including locking bananas (including the Monsters), non locking bananas of the cheap variety which have the + and - connectors encased in plastic so you only have one joint connector to each speaker. The latter will keep your wires apart and keep them from shorting out if pulled accidentially but they loose tension after a while. You can get those at your local electronics store and they are cheap. Another down side is that the cables ends will be bare and attach to the bananas with lugs which can loosen over time. Spades can work loose as can bare wire in 5 way binding posts. The best of the approved bunch was locking bananas. Properly used these are (or should be) fairly fool proof.

Here is a possible DIY solution for you which is fairly effective, cheap, and as far as I can tell has no sonic downside. At your local hardware/electronics store you can get solid copper connectors for heavy guage wire. Like spades connectors except they are not slip on U shaped but circular. The benefit is that once you attach them to your speakers (and amp) by removing the nut on the lug and slipping on the connector and replacing the nut you have got as secure a connection as exists. I connect these and the wires by connecting the bare wire ends to the connector using a vise (no soldering). Then I use a combination of electrician tape and heat shrink to protect the ends from either coming loose or making contact and shorting. The only issue is insuring the size connector matches the size of the post (some posts are bigger than others). I can't remember the size of you ARC wire, but if its is small guage, and for some reason I think it is, this might not work without soldering.

If you don't feel handy, simply get some audiophile grade locking bananas and make a rubber spacer and tape it between the bananas so that if they should get accidentially pulled out from the speaker they won't make contact and short out.

Hope that helps a bit.

The X-terminators are locking bananas but, apparently, they were not tight enough.

Kal