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Spade ID size for Musical Fidelity A3CR amp?

Hello everyone and thanks for helping out. I'm going to audition a set of Audition cables from Rick of Virtual Dynamics. I can't resist any longer. For my Merlin VSM-M speakers I'll need to run a shot-gun bi-wire from my MF A3CR amp. Anyone familiar with this amp knows of the huge binding posts on this amp and the difficulty of connecting cables to it. Rick advises me that spades are the best way to go over bananas and especially over the Cardas banana adapters that I currently use to connect my Cardas Golden Cross internal bi-wire speaker cables. To optimize the performance I'd like to use spade connectors on the Audition cables but fear the 9mm size that Rick suggests are still not big enough to fit around that huge post. Can anyone tell me if the 9mm will fit around the post or do I have to use bananas? Is there any spade made that fits over these lugs? The MF web-site does not even have a way to send them an email that I can find so any suggestions are appreciated! Thanks, Dave
graydmk
3 responses Add your response
graydmk OP
20 posts
 
Socrates, I agree with you as I have tried it when I first got this amp. Made me nervous to have such minimal contact. Clearly looked less than adequate to me. It is a weak connection that you can't really torque down very well. I found that the nut would keep getting loose. Rick from VD suggested the spades as being best, but I too wonder if the difference would be audible? Can anyone verify that spades are sonically better than bananas? I prefer spades and they would be better suited for when I upgrade my amp, but gotta do what you gotta do! Thanks.

R1b61, Be very cautious of that connection! Check it from time to time for loosening. I eventually had to get bananas for the AP wires I had at the time and then got the banana adapters for the Cardas.
socrates
247 posts
 
Don't put the spade through the hole. The hole is not flush at the base, only a hairs worth of contact will be made. I would use locking bananas with that amp through the back of the binding posts. If you can actually hear the difference between locking bananas and spades, maybe your out of my league wrt hearing and my suggestions should be ignored :-)
rlb61
742 posts
 
I'm not sure the 9mm spades will do. Those are jagunda binding posts. My solution is to put the spade in top down through the post hole and then tighten down. It works just fine.
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