To terminate or not....?

[SteveR750]

Apart from the benefits from ease of use, what other reason is there for terminating speaker cables with banana plugs? I have always used bare ends and made sure that the terminals are as tight as I can make them to ensure a good contact. I'm also not sure about the wisdom of buying that length of uber expensive shielded high tech cable only to have a completely different material / construction shoved on the end. There is probably enough lost at the cable / speaker terminal end as it is without introducing another step into the chain maybe.

I ask as I have just bought 2 x 4m of Carnival Silver screen unterminated (for a bargain £38 delivered) to see if this will will enhance things. Currently using a silver high breed shielded speaker cable that looks looks it could handle about 300 amps.....

 

[Anonymous]

Not too sure really. Could they reduce oxidisation eg QED airloc. Not sure how this affects silver plated cables but years ago I used to use some Cable Talk biwire unterminated. The difference in colour of the copper strands after about a month was very noticeable. I also used to use some QED Silver Anni terminated with some Richer Sounds banana plugs and when I removed them as an experiment to see the difference, if any. Well, I'll just say that they stayed removed after that. The plugs really were holding the system back. Weirdly, I have gone back to having banana plugs again (QED Airloc) but this was due to ease of installation (the twisted design on the Genesis Silver Spiral biwire would have been a real PITA if unterminated).

 

[6th.replicant]

Also recently snapped-up some Carnival Silver Screen - currently burning-in, like a loon - though mine has bananas + the 'shrink-rap' dooh-dahs.

Compared to my old cable, which did have bare ends, the current setup is approx 4 clicks louder, whether as a consequence of inherent Silver Screen traits or the bananas I'm not sure?

Still, cracking cable, eh?

 

[SteveR750]

6th.replicant:Also recently snapped-up some Carnival Silver Screen - currently burning-in, like a loon - though mine has bananas + the 'shrink-rap' dooh-dahs.Compared to my old cable, which did have bare ends, the current setup is approx 4 clicks louder, whether as a consequence of inherent Silver Screen traits or the bananas I'm not sure?Still, cracking cable, eh?

Dunno yet, it's still on the supplier's reel!

 

[6th.replicant]

SteveR750:
6th.replicant:...Still, cracking cable, eh?

Dunno yet, it's still on the supplier's reel!

FWIW, I'm pleasantly surprised by my 'investment': much more open and defined sound; deeeeper, tighter bass (bass drums have real snap/kick); cleaner treble, but not metallic/synthetic; and instruments sound a touch more realistic.

However, I was initially alarmed by the lack of mid-range bass. But after approx 50 hours of burning-in - only 20-ish to go, allegedly... - it's getting there. (My yardstick is the bass guitar riff from the opening bars of 1984, from Bowie's David Live.)

 

[Andrew Everard]

We tend to terminate with extreme prejudice because we spend half our lives plugging in and unplugging speaker cables.

But there are advantages with using soldered- or crimped-on plugs, not least that:

a) they avoid any chance of stray wires causing potentially amp-damaging shorts, and

b) if they are soldered/crimped on to make an airtight join with the cable, as is the case with the Airloc plugs (hence the name), they avoid any deterioration of the bare cable ends due to oxidisation. The alternative, with bare wires, is to allow a few inches of spare cable, and cut off the bare end and strip back to reveal some fresh conductor every six months or so.

 

[SteveR750]

I find stripping back every 6 months works pretty well too....