Spades or bananas?

[JASONDMAGUIRE]

I am going to have some custom cables made for me by PNF Audio.
My question is should I use spades, bananas, or both? They will make them however I want so I wanted to see if anyone had any input on this.

 

[Bernard]

I would go with spades as you can really tighten down the binding post on them (depending upon the binding post, of course). If you prefer bananas, go with the lockable type.

 

[amey01]

Bananas are easier, spades give a better connection. I use bare wire, but that is really hard on MLs with the stupid hole-less binding post!

 

[Audioseduction]

I would also go with spades. I feel you can make a better contact with them. Thats what I use.

 

[MiTT]

I'd also recommend spades. If you think about the surface contact area alone that should sway your decision, especially as things tend to oxidize over time. With a spade connection you'll have a planar contatct area as you tigten everything down. With a bannana you'll only have 3 or 4 point contacts around the facets of the connector.

 

[Rich]

Ditto for spades. Also agree with Amey01 that bare wire is probably the best connection but virtually impossible to do well with MLs.

 

[jjcarr]

I use bananas, spades are great, but have a tendency to work themselves loose. Seems no matter how much I tighten them, I come back a couple of months later and they are loose again.

 

[Bernard]

I use bananas, spades are great, but have a tendency to work themselves loose. Seems no matter how much I tighten them, I come back a couple of months later and they are loose again.

I have never had that problem with spades on the Logans. In fact, every time I want to disconnect the speaker I have to work the spade loose by moving it counter-clockwise, as the binding post that I tightened by hand cannot be loosened by hand.

My monoblocks have terminal barrier strips, and as I have a double run of speaker cable for bi-wiring, I have two spades under one screw on the terminal strip. I feed one from the top and the other from the bottom, and have never had a problem; in this config one of the spades would fall if it worked loose.