help with spade connectors

If the size difference is not great, you could try spreading them out with a pair of pliers and perhaps a screwdriver. Just be slow and methodical and bend just enough to fit the post.

Otherwise, you may want to take them to a local audio shop to see if they'd install an upgraded spade for you.

Will your speakers accept bananas? I had the same problem and ended up adapting to banana. Monster makes a pretty sweet adaptor that runs about $30.00 per pair. Much better than breaking a spade which I have also done once or twice.

Best option is to reterminate with spade-lugs from Vampirewire:
http://www.vampiriwire.com

Just cut the old ones off, strip the ends and crimp the new ones on with a large vise-grip.

It's really the duty of a good dealer to make sure your spade lugs are sized appropriately...yet few will bother, as it takes time and sometimes work on the customer's part to check their post dimensions. I'll put my customers through the check, but they don't end up with the problems you are having now. On the used market, it's sort of 'buyer beware'.

If they are a light enough gauge or soft enough metal, you can gently bend the prongs outward enough to make them wide enough to slip on your posts. Keep the prongs flat so they don't buckle. Heavier duty spades might have enough metal on them to be filed open a little bit...just 1/32" on each side should do it.

If you change your spades. I wouldn't use the vise grip method...better to use a real crimper designed for the job. Then you also have the issue of shrink tubing, if you want them to look neat. Many people find their first termination job alot trickier to do well then it might appear, so before you hack the old ones off, think it over.

There are some pretty good adaptors sold by AudioQuest & Apature...it's the same part, and sold perhaps under other names as well. It is a banana that bolts on to 1/4" posts. Could be a good way to go.

Jeff Delman
Value Audio

Everyone thanks. To Jeff Delman, thank you for your comments, you are correct, that is what one has to risk when buying used. But hey, I would never have bought the cable new at $5,000. They are Transparent Reference/XL. Now you know how expensive they are. The lugs are too thick to do any thing with. Quite frankly they’re also too nice to be played with. Knowing me, I would probably would want to upgrade it to the full XL version in the future, just to match the level of my interconnects. So I don’t want to do anything that makes it difficult to sell them when I am ready to spend more money. What I ended-up doing was inserting one leg of the spade into the hole of the binding post and tightened over it with the nut. I know that this not the optimum contact, but it is better than not using the cables at all. I will continue to do so until I find some kind of spade lug-spade lug adaptor. I don’t want to use the banana because the way the connection is made on the Genesis 350 is the banana would have to be inserted vertically from the top over the woofers (if you can imagine what I mean), which means that over time, due to the heavy weight of the cable, I am sure that will have an effect on the structure of it.
Once again thank you for your help.
Mohamed

Another option would be changing the posts on the speakers to accomidate the smaller forks

Mohamed, This could be a good alternative for you, offering you not only a fit with your Transparent cables, but a permanent upgrade to your speakers. You could go with all copper posts from Cardas or Eddison-Price, which I believe come in 1/4" diameter. The all copper posts should be a good sonic upgrade over typical brass posts with nickel plating under gold.

Jeff

I've had the same problem several times and have used a couple different ways to adapt things.Look at your speaker binding post,which sound like ther'e 5/16" with the hole verti
cal.Sometimes if you can loosen the post(from inside) simply turning them 90 deg.so that the hole is horizontal will expose the thinner section of the post shaft that your 1/4" spade will fit on.If getting inside your speakers is a hassle put some tape on a screwdriver that will fit in the post hole and try gently turning the shaft clockwise to reposition it.I'ts not likely that the post will be that tight since overtime most loosen somewhat and turning them in the tighten direction shouldn't hurt anything inside.Cardas makes the best spade to banana adapter and if all else fails send 'em back to Transparent for larger spades.