Mini-Rant: Human Fingers

@shadorne If that is truly the reason then it makes me feel better about the whole thing. At least its not just a matter of bad design.

@rodman99999 All three of the towers I have close experience with seem to have the same dimensions with the 5 way posts. Bu, even making the 'box' they are in larger would help some.

@reubent With my low end (maybe mid-fi, I don't know) Polk Audio towers I did just get banana connectors which makes things a lot easier.

My Aerial Acoustics 7Bs have hex nuts and a 1/2 inch ratchet works okay. But, my cables are Transparent Super Bi-Wires and are spades on both ends. Even with the ratchet the spades tend to twist under the binding post hex nuts when you tighten them.

The 7Bs will accept banana plugs.

So here are a couple of questions about that situation:

1) You can get banana plugs that have a screw off base which can accept a spade from the speaker cable. Is that recommended? Do I need to buy super pricey banana plugs for that application? If so, recommendations? 

2) I could simply cut the spades off the Transparent cables and add good banana plugs but not sure what that would do to the value or performance of those expensive cables?

One issue with that is that I do not know the AWG size of the actual wire in the Transparent cable but they look to be significantly larger that the 12 AWG cable I use on my low end system and I'm not sure they make banana plugs that take larger wire sizes but I have not researched it.

@rodman99999 said:

"Spade connectors do that, under what's being tightened(regardless of the application/not just Five Ways), unless one prevents it, by holding them(or the connected wire), with a fingertip, pointy pliers, etc. "

Exactly. And there is very little room in there to get your fingers or needle nose pliers to get enough purchase to prevent twisting. The cable often ends up kinked no matter what I do.

Currently my main speakers are all hooked up and not going anywhere. But, I have some decent banana plugs and I looked up the specs and they will receive all the way up to 10 AWG. So I think next time I unhook them I am going to cut the spade connectors off and put the bananas on. These use set screws but I can put some solder in there too if it seems necessary. I can't see why this would compromise SQ. I can see how it might lower the value of the cables but I have no plans to sell them anyway.

@onhwy61 Well, it isn't an elaborate joke.

But in a way it probably is humorous because it might just be my take on things. I work on a lot of stuff. Cars, tractors, plumbing, carpentry....as often as I can, if something needs to be fixed, fabricated or built I do it myself.

That being the case I get exposed to both objects and the tools to fix them that are well designed and a joy to use/work on. That makes my day.

On the other hand, most stuff and many, many tools are simply poorly designed. And what's worse is that better design in so many cases would cost absolutely nothing extra in either resources or function. So I appreciate good design and have little patience or regard for poor design.

In this case I can cite three different tower speakers at three different performance levels and all of them are tedious to hook up. 

Someone above said the tight spacing is necessary to avoid stronger EM. I don't know if that is valid or not. Seems a bit of a stretch. Others suggested the design was for the manufacturers benefit. That might be true too. But for $5000 and up speakers I'd expect the manufacturer to think about the customer a little. Another suggestion was that this is just the way it has always been done. That is the most plausible explanation and the saddest one.

No, this is not a weighty issue. But it seems like it is one that could go away entirely if one designer had the sense to recognize that he could make something better, very easily.

@jetter Here is a picture of the binding posts on my Aerial Acoustics:

https://images.nikonians.org/galleries/data/3564/IMG_1124.JPG

As you can see they are 1/2 hex nuts with openings for banana clips. As you can also see there is very little room for everything in there.

And for what its worth I do not like the terminal ends of these Transparent cables. Each of the four ends needs to be longer. Of course if I cut the spades off and put bananas on they will be another 1/4 inch shorter.

@blindjim I’ve got all the tools. I’ve done a little electrical work (house, car, tractor). Having said that, I seem to have a mental inability to really comprehend electricity. Everything I do is by cookbook. I can follow the directions and do the work but I don’t understand it all.

@wolf_garcia They have a pill for that. ;-)

@jetter It sounds like your cables were more thoughtfully designed. Like I say, the actual wire gauge looks to be 8-10 AWG. The rubber covering it is loose around it and much larger around which seems unnecessary since for part of that stretch the wire is actually exposed.

I’ve seen these cables for sale used for over $1000. If I were spending that much right now (god forbid) I’d be looking for something better designed.