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Eliminating spade connectors, upgrading bits, soldering all of it in

Sharing, fwiw. Following a practice a local upgrade colleague did inside a Class A amplifier for me, I recently did the same type of thing on a pair of custom speakers I built for myself a few years back. The idea is around eliminating the last of any low grade connections I could find to see if I could upgrade the sound a little more.  Finally got some time to do it recently, and reporting first results and questions floating around in my head now. Wished I had gotten to this sooner, actually.   

Changes:

1. Removed a quad of quality gold plated spade connectors from speaker crossovers to rear speaker terminal (bi-wire binding posts) on the back of my main audio system speakers.   

2. Removed average run of the mill brass gold plated speaker terminals you can buy at Madisound or Solen. I always intended to replace these, and finally got to it. 

3. Added Cardas Copper binding posts, two pairs, for bi-wire configuration speaker connections to replace the prior pairs just removed. Sat in boxes a few years...

4. Soldered everything back together with Cardas solder thus elminating all prior quality gold spade connectors, internal speaker wire soldered directly. All spades eliminated. 

5. Also noting these new/better and more secure connections from my existing Cardas speaker cables to the new Cardas binding posts just installed

1st Listening Day:

Wishful thinking or not, I've been listening for a while, and something became immediately apparent now in question.  Woah, is it actually smoother on top and is the detail down into the upper midrange actually coming through with a little more and nicer "texture" now?  I could attest it seems like I can hear a little bit more "out there", too nah, really, hmmm. Really liking the added change with tone/texture. Puzzling.  

Setup - first testing with my Class A 50 watt solid state amplifier, and can say its already approching the smoothness of my tube amps in terms of tone, texture, and how it reveals details in a smooth way. The prior connections were good, nothing wrong, well crimped, I checked all of it before converting everything over. 

I really was NOT expecting this type of change, kinda scratching my head.  Its caused me to pause letting go of some of this gear too.

I'm not sure if anyone has encountered this kind of change with such [seemingly] small changes. Hmmm. Should have known better, my prior pair of speakers had everything all soldered in like this with no spades.  Maybe just a few weak links I had. Okay, just sharing in case anyone wants to comment or debate it at all. :) 

 

 

decooney
devinplombier
1,670 posts
 

@sns 

My build uses Euphony operating system which goes even further than the modded Windows or Linux in disabling various functions.

Euphony is in fact Linux, a modded version of Arch Linux to be precise.

Arch, like all Linux distros, is open source software - you can download it at no cost and install it on your system.

Euphony is a paying product with a subscription business model like roon.

The Linux license allows modifying the Linux kernel as long as modded versions are posted. Euphony failed to do that, presumably to protect their paying model. There is no organized enforcement of GPL (see below) rules, therefore the open source ecosystem largely relies on the honor system.

You could look at it like Euphony ignored open source rules and leveraged the work of others for its own profit. Whether a person condones such behavior and enables it with their financial support is their decision, although to be fair Euphony never exactly highlighted any of this in its marketing materials.

More on open source licensing:

GPL stands for the GNU General Public License, which is a widely used open-source software license that guarantees users the freedom to run, study, share, and modify the software. It is a "copyleft" license, meaning any software modified or distributed under the GPL must also be licensed under the GPL, ensuring it remains free and open for all. This protects the software from being made proprietary and promotes community collaboration and innovation. 

sns
4,218 posts
 

Euphony offers more than the OS via interface, Stylus player.

gournard
34 posts
 

@sns,  many thanks for the long and detailed post.  Much appreciated. 

kymanor1
126 posts
 

My entire system investment is about $75K, not just my speakers.  Pennies compared to many of the systems on this forum.  

decooney OP
2,565 posts
 

@kymanor1 My entire system investment is about $75K, not just my speakers.  Pennies compared to many of the systems on this forum.  

Wow, I must be one of the low-lifers around here, LOL, barely have 1/3 invested in my entire system compared to yours.  Its a good thing I design and build my own speakers, and find small tweaks to make it sound even better. Where the fun is imo. Replacing low grade parts with better ones is simple enough, sure can help. 

I find it more fun and challenging to figure out how to get more and spend less, yet I grew up building a lot of my own stuff in many different hobbies, and glad my early years involved working with my mind/hands. Had to. No silver spoon.   Hoping more kids of today will learn new trades beyond staring at their phones and I-pads and becoming social influencers about pure nonsense. Good grief.  

 

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