[HarleyMYK]

I wanted to start a discussion regarding the pro's and con's of different speaker wire connections.  All of my DIY speaker cables connect with either bare wire or spades.  I think the bare wire is actually a little better -- one less connection, although it does not look so great.  The spades let you clamp down as hard as the threads on the nut and bolt allow and give a lot of contact area -- but why would they be any better than bare wire?  Intuitively, there may be even less surface and uneven contact with bananas, but they seem to be very popular.

Does anyone want to add their thoughts on the topic?

[Hantra]

Bare. . .

[Ferdi]

I think it's not entirely straigtforward.

If you are positive you're not going to change the setup and connections for a long time, I think there is no need to use connectors. Bare wire under binding posts will give the best possible contact which I expect will be maintained as long as the wire stays connected tightly in exactly the same way. Some other exposed parts of the conductor may oxidize, get dirty/dusty but are not part of the circuit so who cares. This will work fine in for instance setting up my father's system.

For those who actively change the system all the time (don't we all?), removing and reconnecting cables exposes you to the dirty parts of the connector. You can typically afford to cut off a bit more of the cable to get a clean end but over time, your cables will have the ultimate limit to high quality audio: they don't extend the full distance between speaker and amp.
For those situations (where I certainly see myself), I prefer to use a connector. Not sure if I would prefer spades over banana. I am currently using locking WBT banana on the speaker side and regular banana on the amp side. (The Stratos binding posts are big enough to crush anything   )

[Carlman]

I haven't heard any difference side by side comparing connectors vs. no connectors.  I have had issues with getting bare wire to stay under the nut as I twisted down the binding post, though.  I've also had a stray wire arc to the other post.  Pop!

If you soldered your speaker wire directly from the amp outputs to the crossovers, would you hear a difference?  Probably, because you've removed 2 sets of binding posts and now have soldered bare wire connectors directly to the speaker.  I will be experimenting with this very setup when I decide which speaker cable I'll be using.  

Good luck,
Carl

[rosconey]

bare, when i switched it was a big difference, but i was useing cheap banana plugs(gold plated but what does that do if the interior metal is trash)oh yeh i also use cheap wire 14/3 from home depot used for power cords and such just cut the ground off- works great for speaker wire.