Beneficial to cut off the ends and restrip both ends of speaker wire every so often?? (1 Viewer)

[kurt_fire]

I was reading that after about 2 years the endings of speaker wire will have degraded and decreased sound quality. It said to cut and restrip every few years.

Anybody else know anything about this?

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Some people think so. Personally I never have. If you’re using banana plugs with set screw for clamping, theoretically you should have an air-tight connection at the points of contact. Copper can’t oxidize if there isn’t any oxygen.

Cheers,
Wayne

 

[kurt_fire]

What are banana plugs exactly? Can they be used with any type of speaker?

 

[Greg-ST]

These are banana plugs:



They are attached to the end of your speaker cables. Your speakers/receiver will have to have binding posts to be able to use these.

 

[frank manrique]

quote:

I was reading that after about 2 years the endings of speaker wire will have degraded and decreased sound quality. It said to cut and restrip every few years.
__________________________________________________ ______

Sir, please don't pay no attention to the high-end audio lunatic fringe. This stuff, like a vast majority of other similar concerns, is pure taurine excrement; voo-doo "science"; dog doo-doo. :rolleyes

Don't worry about such idiotic concerns and just enjoy your system...

-THTS

"...hi, my name is Frank...and am an SVS bassaholic..."

 

[Kenneth Harden]

I put banana plugs on my 12 AWG Parts Express wire and they look HOT!

Picture doesn't do them justice. They look like a finished cord (like a RCA cable) and not 'patch cord'

http://www.pbase.com/canonken/image/34845194

Parts Express has great prices. I got these at work for nothing.

 

[joseFMJ]

The exposed copper strands can oxidize, whether that would 'degrade' your sound, who knows... What I do is tin the exposed strands with solder, keeps all the individual strands together.

 

[Bill Mullin]

It would be far more beneficial to twist the ends, tin them with 60/40 rosin core solder, let them cool, then scrape off the excess rosin. You would have a connection which would never need maintanance, as well as never accidentally shorting out to neighboring connectors.

 

[Dennis Gardner]

I've seen the Home Depot wire that many suggest here turn green after less than a year in a basement environ that is humid.

I heard that those that trim, find it easy to do on the day that time changes every six months. Doing so this often would require that you had adequate wire to allow for the trim in the first place.

Personally I do not trim.

 

[joseFMJ]

I got an old pair of original Monster cable that turned green.

 

[Joey_V]

If you want a cheap set of good quality banana plugs.... do what I did and go ebay. I found my acoustic research plugs (for 5 speakers) for the same price as Tweeter sells their Monster Cable bananas for ONE speaker!

On ebay, do a search for "banana plugs" and you will surely get a boat load of finds. Just go for something that costs about 25$ and you're gold! Just make sure the seller has some feedback and that they are mostly positive (if not perfect).