spades vs. bananas

Redkiwi- I am about to terminate some AQ cables with spades (amp) and bananas (speaker). Others must be, as well. If you could post your recommended method to prevent oxidation, I'm sure lots of us would be in your debt.

I use bare wire and just clean the connections every couple of months. If I break a strand of wire (Kimber) I snip off half an inch and strip the wires (8 of them again) which takes a few minutes with a good wire stripper. Mine is one of the old simple ones that you can adjust with a set screw. The connections take very little time to maintain and sound better than any connector that I have used. The only expense to maintain the connections is for a contact cleaner such as De-Oxit. I recommend bare wire if you can do it. I also tried using bananas on a pair of DIY jumpers and found bare wire connections to sound better as well. In this case the bare connection was not very convenient, but they still sounded better. The only time that I use bananas (solder less) are if I am trying out a bunch of different equipment or when I am experimenting with placement of the same. Once the equipment is set then off come the connectors. The only situation that I can think of in which I would use them is if a cable were designed or voiced with their use in mind.

Hi Swampwalker. Dekay may very well be right. And the method to terminate speaker cables can differ depending on their construction. I actually use a local guy who knows his stuff and has thousands of dollars of gear to do the job right and so I don't have the full answer. In the case of Audioquest cables, most use several solid core cables that are easily stripped - unlike cables like Cardas, Wireworld and Straightwire where very expensive termination equipment is needed. The key thing with the Audioquest is to crimp the cable into the connector with sufficient pressure to "cold weld" the joint. Failure to do this will lead to oxidisation IMO, and is the most critical step. The next precaution is to use a suitable fluid like Dekay's suggestion of De-Oxit, but my guy uses something else that is meant to last a long time - I will ask him about it. Then heat shrink the connector and cable to leave none of the bare wire exposed. I guess Dekay's method allows you to continuously de-oxidise the cable whereas what I am suggesting will potentially degrade over time depending on how well you do it.

Trelja had mentioned a super duper hand operated wire crimper that was designed for use in the aircraft industry (I have been unable to source one). This might be what you are looking for if you would like to make solder less connections. His cost for the item was not very much. I had wanted one to make my own extension cords with solder less connections (just stock Belden cords with better connectors).

Redkiwi- thanks, I guess that should have been obvious if I thought about it. Anyone out there know about this super duper crimper. sounds like just what I need.