Too terminate or not

I terminate with banana plugs at the amp side, but not at the speaker side. I rarely disconnect the speakers, but remove the wires on the amp side whenever I have to open it up to change the tubes. 

I also once had terminated cables to the speakers, and they came off....after which things sounded better!

audio2design, I agree - inductance (important factor) will be similar to lamp cord while capacitance (less important) will be on high side.  Dielectric constant of cotton is very low (1.3-1.4), but for oiled cotton (why?) it is over 3, increasing capacitance greatly.  I assume that dielectric absorption follows.  It might sound great, but from electrical point of view it doesn't make any sense. >$30/meter is not expensive in audio world, but you can buy good lamp cord for $1/meter.

Do it yourself, but use car battery conductive grease.

Perhaps you can tell us what the inductance is of the Duelund that is essentially zip cord with an expensive oiled cotton dielectric?

Hello ghulamr.  Parts Conexxion, in Canada is selling Duelund Dual DCA 12 GA speaker wire at $31.95 US/meter. Twenty meters would run you about US$640 and be just about unbeatable. You don't need do-dads on the end. Use it with bare ends. The 16 gage wire referred to in an article someone suggested is too small for you, but what it says about the quality of the product is correct.

And here I was all this time thinking its the human condition. When in reality its only the one person and we can immanentize the eschaton.  

Meanwhile, in other news, one member has just accused another of being responsible for all human suffering. And you think the mods will do anything about that? Not on your life. 

Imply someone may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, boom, yer gone! Blame by name for the plight of all humanity, free pass. 

Oh, the humanity!

@darrell21256 - not really sure what your issue is. It's definitely very deep, maybe childhood inflicted. Not sure what 'conversation last week' you talking about. If it's 'A WASTE OF MY TIME' why do you bother writing. Please don't troll my discussion forum with rude comments. This world has enough individuals like you - that's why we are suffering. Thanks,  

Am I the only one paying attention here? Why are you running such long speaker wires in the first place? If running speaker wires half way around the world is your only choice then I'm with millercarbon6, What's the big freakin deal? Termination at this length with this wire is the least of your worries. And didn't we just have this conversation last week, "Long interconnects vs Long speaker cables"?  A WASTE OF MY TIME.

Jump on the $450.00 cables be a sport.

Good choice on the wire. It is low resistance and importantly low inductance for a long run. Some people will also appreciate your choice if you waster as much money as they did.  4mm^2 does not look like it will fit the holes in the connectors on that amp (judging from the pictures). Spade is a good way to go. Vampire makes several grades of spades, so if you go that way, verify what type they spec.


Personally, I would not waste the money on cryo treatment. There are many other things you can spend that money on that will actually improve the sound.


Stick to gold plate. Rhodium is great for plating jewellery as it is hard which you want for mechanical protection and unlike silver does not tarnish. For electrical contacts, you want malleable so the materials can deform and increase the contact area.

I don't like terminating speaker cables, it simply means you're adding another junction (another point of failure).  As an avionics tech working on jet aircraft while in the service I can tell you that most (not all) of your problems will either occur when a component fails or a connection fails.
And its mostly connections, but then again I don't think your rig will be pulling any significant G forces beyond 1.  Leave them bare.  

Parts Connexion: https://www.partsconnexion.com/DUELUND-86011.html

I have only compared the Mogami as an interconnect vs. the Duelund interconnect. For me the Duelund offered better detail and a more articulate presentation. I think a lot of folks like the Mogami though. When I had my Harbeth SHL5+ the Duelund was the most musical speaker cables I found. I replaced Audioquest Castle Rock with them.

You can always wrap the bare wire around the amp post and tighten the nut.

I only use bare wire or professional connections.

You are seriously going to spend the time and money to add terminals to wire off a reel. Unreal. Oh well, never again pretend marketing is ineffective. At least do yourself a favor and listen to the bare wire before adding the terminals. Otherwise you go the rest of your life imagining it was all worth doing. 

@joey54 Duelund has an incredible following and reputation. Where can I purchase one? Not that many places that sell. How would you compare this with Mogami 3103? 

I replaced banana with spades on my multi individual strand cable.  I bought Audioquest spades but standard crimper did poor job.  I borrowed Audioquest crimper (almost identical) from the local Audio store and it worked perfect.  After crimping I soldered it heating wires first to prevent thermal expansion of the spade (to keep zero oxygen connection).  I know, many purists are against using third material (solder), but connection, even if not 100%, is so tight that solder doesn't matter (electrically).  If you "suck at terminating cables", then better send it to professionals - it is one time expense.

How do you think I can connect bare 12AWG wire behind my Croft?

Fail to see the problem. Looks like a standard 3-way binding post to me. Unscrew a bit, stick the bare wire in, tighten back down. What is the problem?

At 30ft length each it’s far more important that you get the right gauge of wire.

i agree w this

terminate whichever is more convenient - at that length of run the wire will determine sq so much more than different (proper) terminations

I use copper crimp sleeves for all of my terminations, and it's flawless, cost effective and lets you re-use your expensive terminations from several manufacturers including WBT and Furutech.

You need to get the right kind of crimper (WBT's is like $100, but a similar tool can be had from Lowe's and the like for $30).

@millercarbon 😀
that was a typo.
How do you think I can connect bare 12AWG wire behind my Croft? 

Also, I don't know if its really possible to be too terminate. I mean, it has to end somewhere, right?

Bare is always better.

Thanks all - so far the consensus is over no termination and using bare wires. I don’t see a problem with connecting my Harbeth this way but the issue comes when connecting the Croft amp. There is not much room in the back and connector are tiny hole - impossible twisting a 12AWG wire around it. 
@joey54 thanks for the Dueland speaker recommendation. Great reviews. I’ll look into it more. 

You're running 30 feet of wire off a reel. The terminal at the end is the least of your problems. Strip a half inch, twist the ends, stick in the hole, tighten down. With the money I just saved you buy The Complete Guide to High End Audio by Robert Harley. Don't buy anything else until you've read and studied and absorbed everything in there.

 Terminating your speaker cables is not necessary and many audiophiles prefer bare wire as opposed to any termination, it's a personal choice. 
I realize I did not answer your question but I wanted to mention the use of bare wire.

You should look at Jeff Day's article about the Duelund Speaker wire here:

https://jeffsplace.positive-feedback.com/%e2%99%ab%e2%99%aa-2016-jeff-award-for-the-duelund-coherent...

They work great with Harbeth.

I don’t bother with termination, it often causes more problems than it's worth. If you do go with it then get some plugs that do not tarnish and give good contact with the sockets.

At 30ft length each it’s far more important that you get the right gauge of wire.

Good article going into more detail here.

https://www.cambridgeaudio.com/usa/en/blog/speaker-cables