Please help me clean up this stupid speaker cable mistake


I ordered off Ebay yesterday a pair of new fifteen foot Audioquest Rocket 88 speaker cables, the single bi-wire type with banana plugs for $650. It seemed like a good price. There are two banana plugs on the amp end of the cable, four banana plugs on the speaker end of each cable. They are for my new back ordered Magico A3’s, due for delivery by the end of this month. My stupid mistake is you cannot bi-wire Magico A3’s. So I have to combine recombine the biwire leads into single leads, which you would think would be simple.

I called Audioquest and spoke to a tech there. I asked him if the existing banana plugs on the Rocket 88 could be unscrewed. I could then twist two bi-wire leads together and place them back into a single banana jack if they would fit. Either that or replace them with spades, hoping the individual connectors on the Magicos were big enough to accept two spades. The tech didn’t know if they could be unscrewed. Do any of you know if they could be unscrewed and if so would the existing banana plug be fat enough to accommodate two leads.

His suggestion was to buy a set of four Audioquest 500 series spade or banana connectors, and replace the current ones. He though they would be wide enough to accommodate two combined leads and I wouldn’t have to solder them on which I’d like to avoid. They use Allen head screws to hold the wires in place. They go for $70.00. Do you know of any comparable quality screw on banana or spade connectors that aren’t so pricey? I was trying to be frugal in the first place with this purchase without sacrificing quality. The ones that are on the Rocket 88’s are silver plated if that’s relevant.

Sorry for being so long winded and thanks for any suggestions.

Mike
skyscraper

Showing 2 responses by tubegb

Mike, that’s a great question that can take you down a very deep rabbit hole. Probably the less dissimilar metal materials used the better. Your ears may be able to identify the difference(s) but I’m pretty sure mine probably not…
Not to throw a damper on this suggested solution but I own several sets of those adapters. They are designed to fit older/vintage barrier strip or small screw-type terminals. The spade portion of the adapter is likely not wide enough to fit on the modern/large post of your Magicos. Conceptually it will work but I’d recommend finding a similar adapter with a wider spade. I hope this makes sense.