Taking Danny's advice, I finally was able to install the male tube connectors on my 10 AWG speaker wire. The 'trick', in my case, was to cut off the existing wire that had been twisted by my existing bannana plugs, and strip some more insulation back so that the exposed wire was now straight. It still would hang up on the internal groove, but a slight twist would then allow the wire to be fully inserted. I also trimmed a tiny bit of the corners of the wire ends, making them a little rounded so they wouldn't hang up at the internal groove. Crimp, a dab of solder, heat shrink tubing, and it's done.
Color me shocked at the improvement! I played a familiar piece immediately prior to installing the tube connectors (S'Wonderful by Diana Krall from the 5.1 SACD) and made sure the volume control position was unchanged. Her slightly husky voice now sounded even better, with the words more clearly enunciated. Listening to other familiar recordings confirmed the improvement. All this due to nothing more than a different connector! Now I'll have to look in to the feasibility of changing the connectors on my LS9s.
