Hi i have reserved an onkyo 606 and thought i'd ask this question are the plugs purely for convienience or do you lose something by having plugs instead of bare wire?
Convenience and you might not have to cut the wire back from time to time with plugs. You can get 8 plugs on ebay for about £5, so it's not a big expense.
Well I was trying to plug in 3 lots of single wire and 2 lots of bi wire Chord carnival silver+ speaker cable into the back of my Denon amp. After trying for about 30 mins and strugiling due to the thickness of the wire I bought alod of cheap banana plugs. Once these where fitted to the amp side only it was a hell of a lot quicker and easier to plug them in.
The plugs are gold plated, and they where the screw on type so no soldering involved. I don't think you would notice any difference in sound quality from not using them. But they do make it alot easier.