speaker wire termination

I've done some testing and conclude whatever you choose effects the sound. Of those available aftermarket, assuming you are not buying completed factory terminated speaker wire, Cardas is among the best known and George makes a very fine product.

I've also had good luck with Vampire Wire connectors, especially their copper binding posts but I don't know if they still offer wire terminals for DIY. Cardas "parts" page on the WWW shows their current offerings.

Hopefully someone else can toss in additional brands based on their experience.

Basically you want a good, solid "mechanical" connection that exposes as much of the surface of the connector to the binding post. Bananas, spades, and bare wire all offer more than sufficient mechanical connection provided they are done correctly.

If you use bare wire, avoid tinning the wire with solder as that introduces an additional metal into the connection and it generally is not as good a conductor as the wore itself.

As for the sound difference between the various connectors (spades, bananas, etc.) I think most of that is in the head of the listener. Electrically they are equivalent...

-RW-

The "best" connector is no connector. If you have to use one, I agree with Albert. Cardas makes some excellent choices.

If you have a solder gun. One simple and cheap technique is to twist the striped wire ends, apply flux, heat the striped section and lightly apply solder. Clean the affected area of the wire ends with spray applied carburetor cleaner. You will end up with multiple stranded wire fused/joined together and in a configuration that can be easily be inserted into a wide range of amps or speaker connection lugs.

Described above is the dreaded "tinning" that Rlwainwright warned against. IMO, you would be much better off by getting some good spades (cost is about twice to four times as much as crappy spades) and use one of these tools (linked below) to crimp the wire to your spades;
http://www.harborfreight.com/hydraulic-wire-crimping-tool-66150 dot html

Many like minimalist connectors and so at the lower end of the price scale you might find the sound of these is actually quite good;
Vampire SPD Spade lug for 1/4" binding posts, made with copper - gold plated finish

IMO, if you want a step up, it is very hard to beat these;
Furutech FP-203(G) - High Performance, Spade-Terminal, 24K Gold Plated