I feel kind of stupid asking this but wondering what is the best way to
connect 12 guage generic speaker wire to a pair JMLab 714's and 700
center channel. Of course I know I can just stick the wire in there but
is there any practical standpoint why I should spend the money for the
nice gold plated terminals for the wire and plug that into the speaker?
Will it truly affect the sound (maybe the wire won't make good contact
with the terminal???)? I'm also asking this because in the past
I've had non-gold plated RCA pin plugs practically weld themselves into
a cheap receiver and would like to avoid this.

Gerald Sylvester
remove the no spam stuff from my email if you are emailing me directly
please

Gerald Sylvester wrote:
I feel kind of stupid asking this but wondering what is the best way
to connect 12 guage generic speaker wire to a pair JMLab 714's and 700
center channel. Of course I know I can just stick the wire in there
but is there any practical standpoint why I should spend the money
for the nice gold plated terminals for the wire and plug that into
the speaker?

Bragging rights, convenience.

Will it truly affect the sound (maybe the wire won't
make good contact with the terminal???)?

If the connectors on a supposedly high quality speaker won't make good
contact with ordinary 12 gauge stranded wire, then its an indictment of
either the speaker or the person making the connection.

Hint, many spekers have a hole drilled through the binding post, and if you
put the bare wire through that and crank the nut down, you're stylin'.

The most likely problem with directly connecting stranded speaker wire to
the speaker is shorting by stray strands of wire. People who can walk and
chew gum usually avoid with speakers that have their terminals spaced by
more than about a quarter of an inch.

I'm also asking this
because in the past I've had non-gold plated RCA pin plugs
practically weld themselves into a cheap receiver and would like to
avoid this.

There shouldn't be any problem with that sort of thing with speaker wire.

If the connectors on a supposedly high quality speaker won't make good
contact with ordinary 12 gauge stranded wire, then its an indictment of
either the speaker or the person making the connection.

Are you suggesting the later as these JMLab's are nice speakers.

Hint, many spekers have a hole drilled through the binding post, and if you
put the bare wire through that and crank the nut down, you're stylin'.

ok, that gets my vote. thanks. Since I didn't say, I didn't actually
pick up the speakers yet (next week) but wanted to stay ahead of the
game.

The most likely problem with directly connecting stranded speaker wire to
the speaker is shorting by stray strands of wire.

I generally don't like arcing. Then again, I work with linear
accelerators and those arcs can jump a meter and then some. Now if I
can only take a magnetron and turn it into a stereo amplifier. grin

thanks for the pun intended input.
Gerald

"Gerald Sylvester" wrote in message
k.net...

Of course I know I can just stick the wire in there but
is there any practical standpoint why I should spend the money for the
nice gold plated terminals for the wire and plug that into the speaker?
Will it truly affect the sound (maybe the wire won't make good contact
with the terminal???)?

Gerald Sylvester

My experience with bare wire has been good initially, followed by a gradual
decline in audio quality until it was so bad I began to think my system
needed repair. The copper wire had oxidized even inside the speaker's
connector. Gold spades, bananas or pins are cheap ($1- $2 each). No need
to get too elaborate.

Steve

In article ,
"S Koons" wrote:

My experience with bare wire has been good initially, followed by a gradual
decline in audio quality until it was so bad I began to think my system
needed repair. The copper wire had oxidized even inside the speaker's
connector. Gold spades, bananas or pins are cheap ($1- $2 each). No need
to get too elaborate.

Yep yep yep.

The problem- and the reason for using gold connectors- isn't that you'll
make a bad connection, or that you'll accidentally short it. It's that
the exposed wire oxidizes, and the contact deteriorates. Over time
you'll find that you need to restrip and reconnect the wire.

The other issue is typically convenience, like Andy Krueger said. If
you re-do a run of speaker wire once, you'll be happy that you made the
connection with spades, banana plugs, or pins. If you do it twice-
you'll be very happy.

One thing that frequently demotivates people looking at special
connectors is price- look at Best Buy or other consumer electronics
websites and you'll see 4-packs (enough to connect one speaker to the
amp/receiver) for $9 and up, up, up. You might be willing to grin and
bear it for a straight stereo set up, but $45 (in addition to wire) to
connect a surround sound system and a lot of people start reconsidering.

I ended up buying banana plugs from www.cablestogo.com - $15 for all of
them, although the minimum order is $20 (I went ahead and bought pin
connectors in case I end up getting a pair of B speakers). I guess it's
possible to screw up banana plugs (poor QA, spec'd to the wrong size, or
something), but across the 20 that I used there were no problems. I
can't imagine the extra $30 making the gold plating better, the wire
connection more secure, or the fit tighter.

--
Matthew Weigel
the email address is real
the contents of the post are not

"Matthew Weigel" wrote in message
...

One thing that frequently demotivates people looking at special
connectors is price- look at Best Buy or other consumer electronics
websites and you'll see 4-packs (enough to connect one speaker to the
amp/receiver) for $9 and up, up, up. You might be willing to grin and
bear it for a straight stereo set up, but $45 (in addition to wire) to
connect a surround sound system and a lot of people start reconsidering.

Matthew Weigel

I bought some pretty substantial crimp-on spades from Cardas or Kimble for
only $1.50 each. They were in a bin behind the counter at a local high end
shop. Sometimes it pays to ask.

Steve

Matthew Weigel wrote:

It's that the exposed wire oxidizes, and the contact deteriorates.

By definition, exposed wire is not part of the contact between the connector
and the wire. IME if the speaker connector is tightened down proper[u, the
wire surface will still be bright at the point of contact, should you later
disconnect the wire.

"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
...
By definition, exposed wire is not part of the contact between the
connector
and the wire. IME if the speaker connector is tightened down proper[u, the
wire surface will still be bright at the point of contact, should you
later
disconnect the wire.

I understand your argument. But in my case, I had turned the speaker
connector onto the wire as tightly as it seemed to tolerate, and the problem
arose anyway. A good crimp tool will squeeze a spade onto the wire more
securely. Better safe than sorry.

S Koons wrote:
"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
...

By definition, exposed wire is not part of the contact between the
connector and the wire. IME if the speaker connector is tightened
down properly, the wire surface will still be bright at the point of
contact, should you later disconnect the wire.

I understand your argument. But in my case, I had turned the speaker
connector onto the wire as tightly as it seemed to tolerate, and the
problem arose anyway.

Key words: "as tightly as it seemed to tolerate". That suggests enough
subjectivity that the outcome might be unpredictable. The phrase does not
preclude judgments based on screw-type speaker cable connectors that are
inadequate.

A good crimp tool will squeeze a spade onto
the wire more securely. Better safe than sorry.

Key words: "A good crimp tool". Most of the common crimp tools one finds
aren't really very good. They are probably the reason why so many people
distrust crimped connections. OTOH, done right, rally good crimped
connections are the best. If you take them apart, the wire and connector are
cold-welded.

Paul Dormer shared:


"Gerald Sylvester" emitted :

I have some very exotic locking gold plated connectors. Probably a bit
OTT at £40 per set, but they have served me well over the past 15
years.


--
S i g n a l @ l i n e o n e . n e t








As long as they are E.H.E.E.-certified, they're OK.

Besides, if you amortize the cost over 15 years, that's not too bad.

I've been using the same interconnects and speaker cables for about the same
length of time, and they are still in perfect condition. Since this particular
brand carries a lifetime warranty, I'm not too concerned. (Oh yes, and they
have gold plated spades and/or banana plugs ((for the speakers)). I *do* clean
them occasionally with Caig Pro Gold, which seems to do a nice job.







Bruce J. Richman

In article ,
"Arny Krueger" wrote:

Matthew Weigel wrote:

It's that the exposed wire oxidizes, and the contact deteriorates.

By definition, exposed wire is not part of the contact between the connector
and the wire.

Yes and no. There is some minimal distance around the exposed wire-
including that part that is the contact- that oxidizes. If the area of
contact is spread out across many threads with small gaps (an issue with
stranded wire that isn't completely locked down), that minimal distance
makes significant inroads on both sides of each thread, with an end
result of greatly reduced contact.

IME if the speaker connector is tightened down proper[u, the
wire surface will still be bright at the point of contact, should you later
disconnect the wire.

Sure. You have to properly connect banana plugs only once, however,
regardless of how many times you might do something that requires you to
disconnect and reconnect the speakers. Spending $15 to reduce effort
over the life of any stereo system I have (the banana plugs are
reusable, not crimped or soldered), the number of times I have to worry
about making solid connections, is very much worth it. At a guess,
anyone who has already bothered to shell out for 12ga speaker cable
won't mind it at all.

--
Matthew Weigel
the email address is real
the contents of the post are not

Matthew Weigel wrote:
In article ,
"Arny Krueger" wrote:

Matthew Weigel wrote:

It's that the exposed wire oxidizes, and the contact deteriorates.

By definition, exposed wire is not part of the contact between the
connector and the wire.

Yes and no. There is some minimal distance around the exposed wire-
including that part that is the contact- that oxidizes. If the area
of contact is spread out across many threads with small gaps (an
issue with stranded wire that isn't completely locked down), that
minimal distance makes significant inroads on both sides of each
thread, with an end result of greatly reduced contact.

IME if the speaker connector is tightened down proper[u, the
wire surface will still be bright at the point of contact, should
you later disconnect the wire.

Sure. You have to properly connect banana plugs only once, however,
regardless of how many times you might do something that requires you
to disconnect and reconnect the speakers. Spending $15 to reduce
effort over the life of any stereo system I have (the banana plugs are
reusable, not crimped or soldered), the number of times I have to
worry about making solid connections, is very much worth it. At a
guess, anyone who has already bothered to shell out for 12ga speaker
cable won't mind it at all.

The irony is that your typical banana plug does not eliminate the screw
connection, it just changes its form and adds a connector/socket interface
that wasn't there before.

I have a few (dozen) banana plugs in my various audio systems, too. I even
have a few of the high-priced kind that cost over $10. However, I view the
latter as conveniences, not sonic enhancers.

The key to any connection is a solid, so-called gas-tight metal-to-metal
connection. Depending on the exact situation this wothy goal can be achieved
by means that range from wirewrap, to a soldered connection, to a low-cost
banana plug with setscrews, to a high quality 5-way binding post, to a
cheap plated binder-head screw bearing down on twisted stands of wire.

"Arny Krueger" wrote in
:

S Koons wrote:
"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
...

By definition, exposed wire is not part of the contact between the
connector and the wire. IME if the speaker connector is tightened
down properly, the wire surface will still be bright at the point of
contact, should you later disconnect the wire.

I understand your argument. But in my case, I had turned the speaker
connector onto the wire as tightly as it seemed to tolerate, and the
problem arose anyway.

Key words: "as tightly as it seemed to tolerate". That suggests enough
subjectivity that the outcome might be unpredictable. The phrase does
not preclude judgments based on screw-type speaker cable connectors that
are inadequate.

A good crimp tool will squeeze a spade onto
the wire more securely. Better safe than sorry.

Key words: "A good crimp tool". Most of the common crimp tools one
finds aren't really very good. They are probably the reason why so many
people distrust crimped connections. OTOH, done right, rally good
crimped connections are the best. If you take them apart, the wire and
connector are cold-welded.




A good crimp is gas tight as well. If air cannot get to the junction,
then it is quite resistant to corrosion.

r

--
Nothing beats the bandwidth of a station wagon filled with DLT tapes.