Solder or not?

[Frankie]

I may be getting a little anal on this but will soldering the speaker wire improve, restrict or do nothing to the quality of the connection?

I’m in the middle of restructuring my HT setup and as a result I’m connecting my speaker wire directly to the wall plate posts instead of using banana connectors. I find they look a lot tidier. I just stripped them and inserted the wire into the binding post.

Later I stated thinking that maybe soldering them would be a good idea. I know that every little bit helps but maybe I’m getting a little nuts.

What do you folks think?

F

[machine ghost]

I don't believe solder will affect the sound one way or the other- golden eared audiophiles will likely disagree to the effect "It's a shame you are corrupting your 100% oxide free mountain grown copper wire with mere lead product! Try replacing the feet of your DVD player with these $5000 needle tipped titanium feet!" The solder will however stop the wires from fraying and will look tidier, personally I prefer the bannana plugs cuz they come off faster when I have to move my speakers.

[Frankie]

That's a good one ghost

A buddy of mine saw a deal someplace on the nest that involved resting your speaker wire on little plasstic stands to reduce static electrical charges interfering with the siginal.

I'm trying to make my system disapear so to speak. I've even painted wiring the same color as the wall.

I think I'll just leave them as is.

F

[octopus1256]

I used to use barewire on my speaker connection terminals, and I use banana plugs on my amp connection. I just recently soldered the bare wire. The good thing is they don't oxidize - copper cables - and make it easier to insert into the threaded posts.

Honestly, there is a subtle but better difference audioably. Bass is deeper and the treble seems more detailed.