Speaker Cable terminations- spade vs banana vs bare wire?

Jeff, a great solution for terminating bare speaker cable conductors to set-screw type loudspeaker terminations are the ViaBlue OFC Crimp Sleeves: https://viablue.de/com/accessories_crimp_sleeves.php

WBT also makes a high quality crimp sleeve, but I prefer the black PVC "collar cup" of the ViaBlue vice the milky-clear version with the WBT design.

Using these WBT manual crimpers: https://www.wbt.de/english/products/a/Detailansicht/Artikel/crimpzange-1.html you'll find that the resulting crimp sleeve covering of the bare conductors creates a perfect crescent shaped "seat" and is placed evenly and longitudinally down the tube length that will accept the set screw's of most speaker cable connectors tightly and without slipping over time and also without fraying any fine wire conductors themselves. If you don't want to spend the coin on the WBT crimpers, a couple of Klien Tools alternatives can be used with care to create your own crescent-channel along the length of the crimp sleeve but it will take a keen feel to keep from crushing the crimp sleeve beyond its limits.

https://www.kleintools.com/catalog/.../crimpingcutting-tool-non-insulated-terminals
https://www.kleintools.com/catalog/combination-cutting-tools/crimping-and-cutting-tool-connectors

If you'd like some ViaBlue crimp sleeves to play with, just shoot me a PM with details on the cable gauge you'd like to terminate and I'll pop a handful of the VB crimp sleeves in the mail of the size you'll need. Gratis of course.

I have asked a number of people the spades vs bananas question over the years and a summary of my impressions is as follows:
1. Spades give a slightly better connection integrity (over time).
2. This advantage has probably decreased over time as some banana connectors have been improved, although too frequent connect/disconnect may decrease a banana's resilience over time.
3. Many dealers (and others) who make frequent component configuration changes prefer bananas for convenience.
4. A few high end amp/speaker manufacturers do not offer banana connections, probably for simplicity and/or (more likely IMO) belief in #1 above.
Consequently, for me, spades would be the conservative choice. Like you, I'll be interested to see what others think.

My view, in order of performance:
Bare wire in high pressure large area binding posts.
Large area spades that are soldered or crimped (or both) on large area binding posts.
Bananas

I haven’t tried compression sleeves but that seems to be a great option as well.

My rationale is you need the largest surface area under the highest contact pressure you can achieve.

bare wire termination for me -- fewer parts / connections / metals in the signal chain... less is more.

just a purist / minimalist opinion... YMMV

The above crimp sleeves (aka ferrules) are great for fine strand wire. But the correct tool is required.
Ferrules are the main way that stranded wire is connected by industry & military.

I do like the idea of using the crimp ferrules before inserting into whatever final connector is used. I've often wondered how much wire surface area really makes contact in a set-screw connection otherwise, and this seems to eliminate that variable. I suspect it helps slow strand oxidization too. Maybe a good option for those in-ceiling speakers that want bare wire? I'll have to take a look at the connecting terminals when they arrive.

Having done a little browsing today, there really aren't that many solder based connectors on the market now. The Viablue connectors (https://viablue.de/com/connectors_t6s_spades.php) that go with the crimp sleeves Mike suggested seem to have a solder option per their website, but they also make it sound like a mechanical connection is possible. Even the expensive WBT connectors look like they're solder-less.

I agree with the comments about bare wire having the fewest "moving parts" and opportunities to introduce extra resistance. For a 2-channel system with only 4 high-level connections, possibly on two separate amps, this is probably fine. I worry a little about doing it that way on a theater amp with many channels where the binding posts are typically much closer together. Too many chances of a stray strand ending up where it shouldn't. Now, a crimp-sleeved bare cable straight into the cross-hole of a binding post might work, but I suspect I'll stick with a formal connector of some kind.

W9TR said:

My view, in order of performance:
Bare wire in high pressure large area binding posts.
Large area spades that are soldered or crimped (or both) on large area binding posts.
Bananas

I haven’t tried compression sleeves but that seems to be a great option as well.

My rationale is you need the largest surface area under the highest contact pressure you can achieve.

Click to expand...

Agreed. Bare wire whenever possible, so long as you clean it occasionally.

But then, I don't use exotic speaker cables...

Richard Vandersteen constantly auditions connections and has so far found nothing that's as good sounding and easy to keep clean as a teflon screw strip on the speakers using spades. He likes the surface area of the spades and most companies are using hanging silver to protect the spade (Audioquest) or some have those neat spades that have a spring material in them so max out the connection. I personally love the screw type with spades. I thought it was for the cost savings, until I started to use them and saw how easy it was. I have an Ayre integrated that uses the one knob clamp style that clamps L & R at the same time. By far my favorite clamp style on the component. I never had luck with banana's as they pulled out easily (I need access as I have friends bring over equipment regularly and need to change out often.

In order:
1) spades
2) Banana
3) bare wire

If you are required to regulalry swap connections then bananas would move to the top.

I'm using bare wire on the speaker end of the new Audioquest Mythical Creatures series of speaker cables.
I use banana connectors on the amp end and they firmly stay in place.

But on the speaker end, they didn't stay in place. I initially added spades to the speaker end but found that the spades offered their own challenges in connecting to my Harbeth 40.2 speakers.

After calling Audioquest to double check on any downsides, I proceeded to remove the connectors and use the bare wire.
Audioquest told me they offer connectors as a convenience to the customer, not as a performance enhancer, to paraphrase.

So far, I have no problems using bare wire and the connection I get is more substantive than I would have gotten with spades or bananas on the speaker end.

That's awesome stuff. Just make sure to keep them clean. I used bare wire for years in my older system, but I also used contact cleaners etc... on a regular basis. I also do the same with my other connections.