Speaker cable terminations. Bare copper wire or other devices

I have an older pair of Celestion DL8s which have screw-down connectors for spades and bare wire. I use mostly bananas, so I very carefully drilled a 4mm hole in the top thumb-screw part and it now takes a 4mm banana perfectly. I also put some red and black heat-shrink on the posts to indicate + and -.

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BJC has some excellent, well-priced, no-solder spades and bananas, but they wouldn’t work on NAC A5 wire. They’re designed for multi-strand wire.

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These connectors are on their way. Hopefully tomorrow or Thursday.

I have resisted screwing down the newly stripped Naim cable in the speaker terminals. I will terminate the bare wire in these connectors and see where I go from there. Possibly I should try and clamp down an empty spade connector to see how it holds.

Mitch.

G’day HH, my crimper has two anvils on the upper and lower jaw, unlike cheap crimpers you can purchase off eBay or at an auto store. I will give it a go and make my decision. If both of the shoulders on the open crimp spade close evenly I think I will be happy with that effort.

Mitch.

With those in your picture the shoulders are nowhere near long enough to cope with NACA5. Just be really careful to ensure that the connection is really really strong, as if one of the wires comes away from its spade it can short on the other one. The QED connectors look a far better solution for A5.

If it was me I’d probably just order some new cables that come factory fitted with bananas at the amp end and spades at the speaker end, unless I was 100% confident in being able to make a sound connection.

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G’day HH,

You are quite correct. Though I cannot justify the tooling required for cold fusion compression joint.

I will experiment and may go with AudioQuest Option 2. or chase up WBT WBT-0681 Cu Spade connectors.

Regards,

Mitch.

WBT = Waste Bin Technology :wink:

The QED spades that Stephen posted a picture of use screw connectors, so no special tools are needed. You can solder them as well, if you wish.

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I have emailed both the WBT and QED agents in Australia for some more information.

Thank you everyone for putting up with my queries on inexpensive items like these.

Kind regards,

Mitch.

I wouldn’t overthink it. It’s only spades we are talking about. The QEDs would be fine and we know the A5 will fit; there’s no need to spend more.

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QED supply their dealers with a crimping tool that matches their connectors, and so do Chord. If either of these companies have those facilities available via their Australian dealers you could maybe send them your cables to be re-terminated. Of course, you could also get them to make up a new set of cables, but that’s a bit wasteful if you already have some that are suitable.

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Anybody serious about obtaining the perfect crimp really needs to invest in an applicator.:nerd_face:

Applicator

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I had heard stories of dealer offsites at Mission where after drinks a game of roulette was played with a crimp gun and your finger. A colleague showed up (all fingers intact) very spooked one Monday after a week’s training.

I find that to guarrantee a good crimp, the mating parts have to be right for each other and I always squeeze the heck out of it so the crimp is so tight that air can’t get between the areas that are touching.
I use vise grips and a vice.

G’day HH,

According to the reseller of the inexpensive gold spades, I have mentioned. They do take a maximum of 12 awg or in metric terms 4mm2. It will take a steady hand to ensure that all the strands on the A5 cable stay in the slot of the spade connector.

I do have the hand skills of placing the stranded wire into the lug, then gently placing the lug in the crimper, and compressing. Though sometimes with small crimp lugs it is easier to place the lug in the crimper, gently ever so slightly squeeze the ratchet grips together to hold the lug. This is the difficult part, then insert the stranded wire into the lug in the crimper jaws and insure no strands are omitted.

If this fails I may go down the WBT path of connectors. I have priced four Cu connectors, ten gold sleeves (it was easier to calculate and have a few spares if I muddle things up), and the manual hand crimper. Which total $315.40 AUD. I did toy with the idea of Ag spades until I realised that the price was for one connector. I would love to sneak them in, though I am sure my dear wife would have a fit.

Open for discussion: I am wondering about the concept of the WBT spade lugs having four dimples on the underside surface, which I assume is to grip onto the binding post lower surface to prevent them from becoming loose. I also like the idea that they use Torx screws rather than allen key grub screws. I did watch a small video on the WBT connectors and noticed that the Torx tool is designed with a small handle/elbow to prevent over-torquing the Torx screw. The tool did not appear to be double-headed/ended.

Mitch.

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Dear FZ,

I have never thought of removing the binding post knurled nut before. I could possibly use standard tinned yellow crimp lugs. What do forum members think of this idea, please?

Mitch.

G’day Chris,

The dealer for the QED Airloc connectors is happy to connect the spades to my speaker cables as long as I send them to Sydney where he is located. I am toying with this idea. Though I keep returning to the WBT connector with the four dimples on the underside of the spade. Ruminating about this at the moment.

Mitch.

No, it is not just you Dr_J.

Welcome to the club.

Mitch.

I find when I have done this with stranded wire it tends to be pushed out of the connection when the knurled nut is tightened. I am glad it works for you.

Mitch.

Why? Could you explain further, please?

Mitch.