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Why terminations on speaker cable?

I'm wondering why using bare leads with speaker cable is not more common. There is really never a case when any kind of terminator is going to result in clean conductivity since even if said terminator has more surface area to contact the binding post, it is still soldered to the wires at a single point.

Are speaker cables terminators just audiophile baggage?

I'm going to try some unterminated cables for my speakers.

At the very least I think it will likely be an improvement with HE speakers where voltages & currents never get very high anyway.
paulfolbrecht
tvad
9,467 posts
 
Stranded wire poses no issues if the ends are tinned. Mike Morrow does this. No problems.

Nick Gowan says he solders WBT crimp sleeves onto the stranded ends, thus preventing fly-a-way wires.
tvad
9,467 posts
 
With solid core wire...go naked unless you find terminations easier to use.
jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
I'm using those Mapleshade speaker cables now, Double Helix plus. Bare leads....they sound very good, especially for the price.

Cheers,
John
craig_hoch
65 posts
 
That's a great question Paul. I have Morrow Audio SP-2 Speaker Cables in both of my systems, and one pair is unterminated wire. When I bought my second pair of cables from him, Mike Morrow told me that unterminated wire is flat out the purest connection available. He put some silver solder on the bare wires and I'm using them in that state in my dining room rig. They sound great BTW.
rrog
1,958 posts
 
All connectors affect the sound. I prefer the sound with bare wire opposed to terminated wire everytime.

Audio Magic sells an unterminated wire also.
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