What a great pillock I am. No matter how many times I read and reread Stephen’s post I kept on reading Air-loc. I am glad I revisited the forum early this morning as I have been able to track down two sources. One from the UK and the other from the USA. Both are eBay listings.
I will see how my cheap Aussie connectors go and if unsatisfied I may purchase the screw-locs.
Thank you, HH for mentioning this.
Mitch.
Maybe the Kharma posts are a little different than yours, there is basically a big flat piece that tightens down on both wires at once, by turning the chrome nut.
I see. I was referring to the earth studs in electrical fluorescent light fittings. I am missing the obvious, I missed Stephen’s reference to “Screw-Loc” spade lugs and now yours with a wink.
I am in need of a second coffee this morning.
In the words of Homer Simpon, “Doh”.
Mitch.
Dear HH,
I must apologise when I looked up your reference it came with the following. I am confused between your reference to Air Locs and Screw Locs. Possibly the price is indicative. Are these the connectors you are referring to please?
Mitch.
Don’t be too hard on yourself! Airlocks and Screwlocks look identical until the plastic cover is removed.
Sorry Mitch, I think it’s me who was confused! It’s the screwloc version that you might consider.
I’ve used those QED screw-loc banana instead of spade. Can verify they’re quite solid. At first I didn’t love the hard matte plastic sheaths but they’ve kind of grown on me.
Excuse me, everyone. I must be a Nuff Nuff, though I am unable to locate QED screw-locs that are suitable for 4mm2 stranded wire. The items that I can locate are for 6mm - 10mm.
This leads me back to AudioQuest which has received so so reviews on Amazon about the grub screw stripping. I assume they do not mean the thread, though the internal hexagon of the fallen key hole.
The other is WBT. The price of the connectors does not deter me, well at least the Cu copper ones. Though I am having trouble validating the price of the crimping tool for four connectors.
Gee, I overcook a tittle.
Mitch.
Back to the kitchen with well-burnt steaks. I have been thinking about the WBT spade connectors taking 10mm squared cable and that would be rather heavy. Though the chances for speakers that would take that size the connections would be close to the floor level.
I am trying to justify or not justify the dimples on the WBT cable for extra grip and that insure the spade will stay in place. Will vibrations from the speaker dislodge the spade? Is it a marketing ploy to have all the different gold sleeves by WBT for all the different sizes of cables available on the market?
I think the inexpensive (better word than cheap) $5 spades connectors may be just that.
I am just impatient waiting for the express parcel with $5 connectors to arrive. Hopefully today.
Everybody go back to sleep whilst I look for some paracetamol.
Mitch.
Well, the $5 connectors arrived and they are rubbish at least for this size cable as somebody mentioned before the shoulders would not roll over and they did not. I have taken a pic. Please excuse the overhang of the copper wire. This was a suck-and-see attempt. The only thing of any value with the connector was the red and black sleeve for wire identification. There were two attempts. $16 down plus postage.
Now onto something else.
I did retract the binding post screw all the way and the good news is that it has a flat bottom. Bare wire is looking good at this stage.
Warm regards,
Mitch.
That blows,can you just stick them in a shop vice to squeeze the round part,mashing it into the wire? Then maybe solder them to be sure there is lots of contact. Just a suggestion,rather than tossing them in the garbage.
Right or wrong with my disappointment with the $5 connectors. I did also purchase them as a gauge to what studs I had the speaker =binding posts. I have now purchased two pairs of these, even though the so-so reviews on Amazon.
Warm regards,
Mitch.
Its best not to twist.
G’day Roog,
This is quite correct. I have started another topic on the findings from emails with AudioQuest as these are supplied from my NAIM dealer. Upon arrival, the connectors do look small though they do take the 4mm2 12AWG A5 cable. In hindsight, I probably should have purchased the 300 series. Though I had already made my purchase before I learned this information. Also, the connectors had arrived at my home ready for use. Add to the fact I was also music-deprived I could not wait another weekend for the 300 series.
Though for now, it is what it is. My theory was if the lug could take 4mm2 it should be able to handle the current of such a cable is possible of carrying. My amp is an entry-level amp a Nait XS2.
I might treat myself to an anniversary present of the 300 series in a couple of months’ time.
I did think my other post would have received more likes than it did as I from a tech point of view found it most interesting.
According to AudioQuest and this appears to be the same for all connector manufacturers except for the professional cold fusion joint which I think is the QED connector.
Coldfusion is better than silver which is better than gold which is better than solder.
Though I do know that my A5 cable from the dealer was soldered in the NAIM connector to connect to my NAIM amp. I am happy to be incorrect with this comment. Please reply with your thoughts.
A couple of pics of the new connections on the left speaker.
I have no idea why it came out on its side. These pics were taken vertical, not horizontally.
Warm regards,
Mitch.
While there are differing views on this subject, Naim have always recommended soldering their speaker cables. Besides, of solder is no good your amp must sound pretty awful because it’s full of the stuff 
Fair Comment Chris, though I bet all the tracks on the boar are 7ct gold.
I think the argument against solder was due to the possibility of cold joints if a home enthusiast was to take up the challenge.
Mitch.
There is soldering and there is soldering. A good joint uses the solder only to form a mechanical fixative to hold two conductors in place. The solder itself isn’t a primary conductor bridging the two. A bad solder fills a gap between two non connecting conductors.
This is where soldering skill comes into play. If you look at Naim plugs, the A5 fits in very tightly to the groove and the solder is really just a fixative. Similarly on PCBs, the legs of discrete components shouldn’t be floating. They should poke through the holes and be touching the edges of the conductor around the hole before the solder is applied.
Not to mention, crimping on a PCB isn’t really feasible.
The problem with bare wire is it really gives an unpredictable surface contact formation and oxidisation is a problem in certain climates. A bit of tarnishing doesn’t really hurt but I’ve seen bare wires and crimps for people living near the coast where the copper had turned green and brittle.
For this reason, I think bare wire is really out. Crimps or solders, if done properly can both be excellent if care is taken to ensure good primary contact of the two main conductors and some measure against oxidisation is taken. For solders, that means tinning up to the sheath. For crimps, I apply heatshrink over the completed crimp and seal the end where the top of the wire is visible with a dot from the glue gun. Which method is used largely depends on the thickness of the cable, the metal of the terminations on the amp or speakers, and whether the best plug for that metal type and gauge is available in solder or crimp.
Dear feeling-zen,
Thank you for your comment and you raise some really good points. Soldering 4mm2 heavy stranded wire as used in my NAIM A5 cables is out for me. I do not have any soldering irons large enough for this task or possibly the skills these days also. If I remember in electrical apprenticeship days making up jumper leads for cars using two lengths of 4mm2 flex for each join. Thus I am using a 4mm2 3 phase flexible cable to copper jumper/car battery clips. I believed I was possibly using an oxy/acetylene torch. Though that was a long time ago.
These days my skills are limited to hobby electronics in repairing Christmas lights and the like. I do not think I have completed any radio repairs for a very long time or soldered any PL259 50-ohm connectors either.
Point taken as I was only paraphrasing what had been written to myself in an email from AudioQuest. I did not like using bare copper of the A5 cable into the holes provided in my speaker binding posts as the 4mm2 not flexible wire of the A5 ended up mashed in the hole as the holes are not straight up and down, though on some angle off 12 or 6 o’clock so to speak.
I did contemplate the use of WBT connectors though that required the outlay of a special crimping tool which I may validate and purchase a setup for next Christmas. It was a matter of $95 AUD for eight connectors 100 series or 4 connectors 300 series also at $95 AUD. Or spend in excess of, I think $400 AUD for crimpers, gold sleeves, and connectors. Which in the end would have been the better way to go.
As far as pulling out the speaker cables and sending them off to Sydney for airloc fittings to be fitted. I did not want to go through the rigmarole of removing the cables from my IKEA TV Media cabinet. If I had some sort of Frame rack then this would not have been such of prohibitive issue.
If I ever do go down the road of adding an ND5 XS2 and running more cables to the amplifier a Nait XS 2. Then when I am on my hands and knees. I might do it then.
We do live by the surf coast at Bass Strait, Victoria, Australia. All I noticed from the speaker cables when removed for connecting to the inside of the spade connectors a discolouring after living here the past four years and no green oxidation. I cut this scrunched-up discoloured wire from the cable and stripped back an appropriate amount of clean copper wire for the new screw termination of the new AudioQuest 100 series spade lugs.
It was AudioQuest that stated that silver connectors sounded sweeter to the ear. I know no more detail than that. Though, if I may. I believe you are directing the thought if your binding posts are gold, then use gold spade lugs. Which to my reasoning sounds sound. No pun intended.
Thank you feeling-zen.
I appreciate your input.
I wish to add that I was pleasantly surprised as I thought the grub screws in the AudioQuest 100 and possibly the 300 series would just pinch against a wire strand and that would be my so-called connection. What in fact happened is the grub screw lifted the whole stranded wire cable against the roof of the tunnel in the spade lug to my approval. This leaves me with the impression that the top 180 plus degree arch of the cable and lug tunnel are mated.
The beryllium copper of the spade lug being of a harder material than brass or plain copper could take the required torque of the grubs screws to maintain a firm bond. There was no hint of the threaded hole that the grubs screws screwed into of giving way or stripping. I did apply very firm torques and was impressed with the fallen key tool supplied. Very high-quality connector for the money.
Warm regards,
Mitch.
Your lugs look fine to me, the biggest issue is to make sure that they can’t short out, yours look good, plenty of space between them, many speaker terminals are much closer together increasing this risk. Current carrying capacity is not really a issue providing a robust connection is more important.
