Anyone went back to using bare wires on speakers?

I mostly use bare wire. If I use connectors its Z plugs.

My speaker terminals are brass my speaker wire is kimber four tc silver nude. Anyone eliminated the terminals and gone directly to the driver?

As long as you're using quality termination(no brass), the difference shouldn't be substantial.

I use bare wire on both the amp and speaker ends. I noticed a small improvement in SQ when I removed the spades.

I could be crazy.

Bryon

Buconero, that's a great idea. In fact, I'm going to tin the ends of my cables with WBT 4% silver solder right now.
Thanks for that tid bit.

Used spades for a short while and figured that it's just a waste of money to have speaker wire terminated.
I might implement adding speakon connectors and plugs once I feel that I'll need to plug and unplug speakers often. That's the only valuable plug-connector to have between amp and speakers.

Tin the ends and that will avoid most of the oxidation, otherwise it is the way to go.

I thought I remember reading somewhere that although silver does oxidize it does not affect the sound in any way

Copper oxide is an insulator; by contrast, Silver oxide is a very good conductor.

http://www.spearitsound.com/siltech/siltech_faq.htm

I use bare wire on my Revel F52 and Pass amp..

There are no connectors on my DIY silver ribbon speaker cables.

Two flat silver ribbons each wrapped in wide Teflon tape, then placed back to back and wrapped again. At the ends, I just folded the ribbon lengthwise and managed a bit of origami to get the right angle and separation of the ends. Then I cut a notch with small scissors and fitted the end to the binding post.

Every year or so I unplug and clean the tarnish off and polish the exposed silver, then clamp them again.

Regards,

04-13-11: Lewhite
One of the local salons ,who shall remain nameless, told me that it was less then prudent to not use solid silver spades on my silver kimber. The reason being to avoid the oxidation of the silver wire.

Avoid oxidation of silver wire ? Not good advice. Silver Oxide (aka Tarnish) is a better conductor than silver itself. That is why older silver cables sound much better than new ones...

No, I prefer the convenience of leaving the connectors on and it would be difficult with the flat speaker cables I use. I do bypass the binding posts at the crossovers by using them to pinch the wire feeding the crossover and the spade connector together instead of passing the signal through the binding posts. Probably about the same effect as removing the cable ends and nothing is modified.

One of the local salons ,who shall remain nameless, told me that it was less then prudent to not use solid silver spades on my silver kimber. The reason being to avoid the oxidation of the silver wire. He started to write a quote at $45 each for twelve spades. Upon my questioning the guy's math he stated 'with a system of my caliber it would foolish not to atleast bywire'. Up until then he had never asked what kind of kit I owned. When I told him there was only one driver in the cabinet he looked kinda puzzled as there is at least two speakers in all cabinets. I told him that I needed three feet of wire, and the guy immediately doubled my measure and exclamed that I needed at least eight feet to sound good. I told him. . .No! Three feet total and started laughing to bust a gut. You know he threw me out of the store.

I am also "sans" connectors on both my amp and speaker ends.

I use bare wire at the amp and speaker.
I feel it's best to not have termination. Nothing is more pure than the wire that you are using with nothing to interfere. I don't take my cables on and off much so the convenience of termination is not an issue.
There was a sonic improvement when I went naked on the ends.

I just bought a Linn Classik and a new pair of Klipsch Energy CB-10's as a back up system. Using bare wire, which is the best connection. Just cut some new wire every few months and you'll be fine. I have bananas on the amp end. Happy listening.