spades vs. bananas

I agree with Bill as I have used good examples of both in soldered and solderless form. I do however think that a bare wire connection sounds different, better IMO.

I use bare wire and just clean the connections every couple of months. If I break a strand of wire (Kimber) I snip off half an inch and strip the wires (8 of them again) which takes a few minutes with a good wire stripper. Mine is one of the old simple ones that you can adjust with a set screw. The connections take very little time to maintain and sound better than any connector that I have used. The only expense to maintain the connections is for a contact cleaner such as De-Oxit. I recommend bare wire if you can do it. I also tried using bananas on a pair of DIY jumpers and found bare wire connections to sound better as well. In this case the bare connection was not very convenient, but they still sounded better. The only time that I use bananas (solder less) are if I am trying out a bunch of different equipment or when I am experimenting with placement of the same. Once the equipment is set then off come the connectors. The only situation that I can think of in which I would use them is if a cable were designed or voiced with their use in mind.

Trelja had mentioned a super duper hand operated wire crimper that was designed for use in the aircraft industry (I have been unable to source one). This might be what you are looking for if you would like to make solder less connections. His cost for the item was not very much. I had wanted one to make my own extension cords with solder less connections (just stock Belden cords with better connectors).