To terminate.. or not

In my opinion BFA style bananas are the best compromise. They always fit tightly, but without the need to "lock" them. Because they maintain constant outward pressure onto the inside of the speaker binding post, they are "self-tightening. This is a huge benefit over bare wire or spades which can loosen over time.

BTW, you can buy BFA style bananas very inexpensively at Multi-Contact USA. I think they are $1.11 each. Here's a link to an excellent review of a DIY speaker cable that uses the Multi-Contact USA BFA style bananas:

http://6moons.com/audioreviews/whitelightning/moonshine.html

Enjoy,

TIC

Not every amplifier accepts bananas. Consider spades at least on amp side. From the purist's point of view spade provides the best sound but it's probably way above level of your gear and cables.

I think,-silver - Bananas are the best way to go. The contact area is in the plug.

Solid wire unterminated. No stray strands to worry about. Just as bad as the stray strands are the loose banana plugs... killed a channel that way. Spades over bananas if you can, but bananas for simplicity. Bare wire is first choice though.

It depends on your requirements. The best connection is to solder because it eliminates the #1 problem of contact reliability, which is tension force. Obvisouly soldering is not always an option and you must connect meachanically. In which case, bare wire offers the best reliability. If it is a semi-permanent connection, like at the speaker, then there is no reason not to use bare wire. The problem with bare wire is that strain releif is next to impossible. If you are going to plug/unplug often, like at the amp, then bare wire can stress, fray, break. In which case, you probably need a connector for strain releif as well as convenience. Going back to rule #1, select a connetor that offers tension force. That would be a locking banana.

I hear so many people say that spades offer the best quality. But I never hear a reason why. My experience has been poor. Can someone please tell me one good reason why to use spades?

Now that we are on the topic, why don't they put lock washers on bidning posts? That would apply tension force to hold both bare wire and spades in place.