[warnsey]

G'day. I just got my QED silver anninversary edition speaker cable and i was wondering if it is worthwhile tinning the ends of the cable before i terminate them to bannana plugs. So firstly should i do it? If so what should i use? I have some pure silver solder laying around. Will that be any good?

Cheers

 

[Jahn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by warnsey G'day. I just got my QED silver anninversary edition speaker cable and i was wondering if it is worthwhile tinning the ends of the cable before i terminate them to bannana plugs. So firstly should i do it? If so what should i use? I have some pure silver solder laying around. Will that be any good? Cheers

you know, i tried banana plugs, but with my speakers they just didn't seem to have good contact. so i just smashed raw wire in there and sweet sound came out. dunno if tinning would help at all, but without it it seems fine - until it corrodes.

 

[soundboy]

You guys are really missing out on the sound quality gain from tinning ends of speaker cables audiophile-approved solder.

 

[warnsey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by soundboy You guys are really missing out on the sound quality gain from tinning ends of speaker cables audiophile-approved solder.

How do you gain sound quality?

 

[dwc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by warnsey How do you gain sound quality?

by tinning ends of speaker cables [with] audiophile-approved solder, as stated.

 

[warnsey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwc by tinning ends of speaker cables [with] audiophile-approved solder, as stated.

Sorry should have been more specific in my question. How will tinned ends improve sound quality?

 

[max-9]

Tinning wires makes a better (more durable) connection .
Im sure nobody could hear a dif between tinned and non tinned speaker wires.
Frayed multistrand wires can loose contact and possibly short ..its a good thing to hit a wire with a touch of solder.

 

[dwc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by warnsey Sorry should have been more specific in my question. How will tinned ends improve sound quality?

Warnsey, Soundboy was joking, and I didn't help any.

 

[xluben]

I just use a little bit of 60/40 solder to keep the stranded wire together. It was mostly a convenience thing for me.

 

[Jon L]

Tinning the ends would be for reliability, neatness, durability, but not for better sound. Solder is a bad thing for sound, though a necessary evil.

For pure sonics, unmolested bare ends are best, provided that the wire is not feeble and fraying, unable to make solid contact with speaker posts.

Unless one is willing to undergo Herculean efforts, such as using something like Eichmann Bayonet bananas (first crimping, then soldering on top), just use the bare ends. Clean the ends once in a while with something like Caig De-Oxit and/or coat with Caig ProGold treatment...

 

[SemperFidelity]

It depends to some extent on the banana plugs. If they are designed for a crimp connection, AND you have the proper tool(s) I would carefully clean the mating surfaces and then crimp. A gas-tight, cold weld silver-silver connection is what I'd think best of all.

If you have some sort of pressure connection, set screw or similar, I'd not tin. (I would with copper, but silver tarnish is much less of a problem than copper oxidation. ) Cleaning periodically as noted above would be a good idea. I've used bare copper lugs in the past, and liked the sound, but a pain to keep pristine.

Rhodium has been known for years to be a stable plating layer, and that helps. Thin gold over brass or copper is almost always subject to diffusion through the gold. Nickel helps that, but adds more intermetallic interfaces.

Banana plugs come in all sorts of designs; some are pretty poor over the long term. A friend has locking bananas on his cables; I just read on the Pass site that such are subject to wear problems, and sure enough, the gold was gone on the contact surfaces. The type with a little sleeve slit and sprung (hope that's clear) for the contact is usually quite short lived.

Currently I'm trying the Cardas Rhodium plated bananas, which I like; for the moment the copper wire is terminated in a Rhodium plated spade lug, and then to the banana. That's because I'm experimenting with the wire. I'll eventually solder to the banana, which is used at the amplifier end.

On the speaker end, a lug on the cable, and a lug on the end of the wire from the crossover, placed one over the other and compressed in a terminal block (Insulated, so current flows only lug to lug) seems good. Even better, if possible, is to make the speaker cable pendant on the speaker end.