Audioquest - Is this the norm?

[Rilands]

One of the banana plugs recently bent and broke on my $1200.00 pikes peak speaker cables. I thought I should send it back for repair since I thought it was probably much more complicated than the cheap termination jobs I use to do myself. I found out I would be without them for about a week, so I decided to take a look myself. I took the two allen nuts out, and the plug slipped right off the cable/wire. I grab a new plug out of my wire/junk box and two minutes later I'm listening to music.
My question; shouldn't the plugs be soldered on to the cable? I'm shocked at how simple the termination was. It definitely had not be attached to the cable any other way besides the two screws in the plug. I'm a bit surprised and disappointed.

[Masterlu]

It may be normal for Audioquest, but not many other brands.

[jdandy]

Rilands.......There are two schools of thought on terminations. One group believes a low heat silver solder makes the best terminations, and the other group believes a mechanical termination, either crimp or set screw, makes the best termination. Personally, I embrace both.

On my speaker cables, Kimber 8TC, I have installed the WBT TopLine locking banana plugs. The first thing that goes on the wire is a gold plated crimp sleeve, sized for the gauge wire in use. After the sleeves are crimped on the bare copper ends, they are inserted into the WBT connector, where two gold plated torx set screws tighten down on the crimp sleeve. This method makes a very tight, and secure termination of the wire into the connector without the use of solder.

I would not be disappointed that Audioquest uses set screw terminations, although without the crimp sleeves the set screws have a tendency to mash and spread the stranded wire, which may not be the most desirable of mechanical connections. To help stop the stranded wire from spreading out under the set screw you can silver solder the ends on each wire before inserting them into the connector and tightening the set screws.

[salmtpa]

Agree with Dan, both solder and mechanical joints are capable of air tight connections when done properly. Done properly being the key term, for solder you can overheat and fatigue certain metals, and obviously mechanical connections can be poorly crimped and cause problems as well. I've seen and used both types over the years with no problems, YMMV from one vendor to another. But on larger gauge conductors like speaker cables I'd expect to see a crimping sleeve like Dan mentioned.

[Rilands]

Thanks guys for the input.

[jdandy]

Rilands.......Here's a couple of links to what I am using for speaker connectors. My Kimber 8TC cables are 9 gauge, so I used the WBT 8 gauge crimp sleeves: Parts-Express.com:*WBT 0445 Crimp Sleeve 8 AWG | WBT 0445 sleeve crimp crimp sleeve crimp technique, and then installed the WBT Topline locking Banana plugs: Parts-Express.com:*WBT 0600R Topline Banana Plug Red | WBT 0600 speaker terminal banana plug locking banana speaker plug

[Face]

Originally Posted by Masterlu

It may be normal for Audioquest, but not many other brands.

I agree, I've heard more bad things about their termination than anyone else.

[ian@pmc]

I've seen this at a dealers showroom, it was unbelievable. They had the Volcano, with flimsy little plug that fell apart.

[jdandy]

AudioBequest........

[Masterlu]

Originally Posted by jdandy

AudioBequest........

Monsterama vs AudioBeast