Speaker cable connections for vintage gear


I have a couple of nice, stock, vintage amps (McIntosh MC-60's, Dynaco ST-70 and Dynaco SCA-35. I always get frustrated trying to get decent speaker cable connections when I insert these into my system. In each case the speaker connection on the amp is a small, screw barrier type. Is there some realatively inexpensive/easy way to deal with this situation. I recently upgraded my speakers to North Creek Music Borealis speakers. I want to bi-wire, but will probably use jumpers when using the vintage amps. Are there small spades available to use with vintage gear, other suggestions? I am not really wanting to change the amps to accept larger spades or bananas, and I am willing to compromise on the size and quality of the speaker cable to get to a clean solution. Thanks for your input.
stuartbmw3
Use Radio Shack gold crimp spades(no solder) they will fit your vintage barrier strip screw connectors.Depending on how large a cable you will be using you can connect two cables together at the amp end's for biwiring your speaker's.
Yes,but they hammer you with shipping for low weight products.
Ask them to send Postal instead of U.P.S.
If you dont ask its automatic U.P.S.
Postal is much cheaper for the light stuff.
See if this works for you. Go to www.parts-express.com and search for item #095-678, "Gold Plated Screw Type Spade Terminal." They cost $1.68 each.
These might be just what the doctor ordered

If you're handy with a soldering gun, you can probably build a set for a lot less ... just solder a section of speaker wire to a set of binding posts, strip the other end and put it under the screw barrier terminals for the amp's output

>>>>"I want to bi-wire, but will probably use jumpers when using the vintage amps."<<<

You should also be able to bi-wire now, as you have a standard binding post to put your Bi wire speaker cables into.

HTH Dave
I had the ST-70 for about fifteen years. You are right about the bi-wire there. But I had new speaker jacks put in. The chassis was easy enough to modify. But I see you rather not monkey with it. So perhaps you change the cable termination to a common ring (or open jaw) that fits the screw barrier.