Binding posts

[realysm42]

Has anyone here upgraded their binding posts on either their amp or speakers (or both)?.

If you havem can you tell me how hard it was and did it make an improvement in sound quality?

Would you say that you need to consider the equipment that's being upgraded with regards to the item you're upgrading it with?

I assume that opening equipment invalidates the warranty of it?

[YNWaN]

Are you thinking of replacing spring clip terminals with binding posts - or just changing one set for another (yes, this sort of thing will invalidate ay existing warranty)?

[realysm42]

TBH I'm not sure, I was looking at binding posts on mains cables r us and it got me thinking.

I'm not sure if it helps to know, but I've Roksan TR 5 speakers and a Capsian M2 amp. I think it's just changing one for another; have you done this yourself?

[Effem]

In pure honesty you will only be changing gold plated brass posts with ........ gold plated brass posts :rolleyes:

Solid copper or solid (not plated) silver would give you a sonic benefit, but you have to balance that out against the cost and the hassle of fitting them, because you could find that they are directly soldered into the PCB so a complete stripdown is required.

Roksan already fit slightly better than the average quality, so my advice is stick with what you have already.

[realysm42]

Superb, that makes life one step simpler; cheers Effem.

[YNWaN]

I've built quite a few speakers. To be honest, you are wasting your time unless the existing posts are particularly nasty or those spring-clip jobs. As Frank states, almost all posts are plated brass.

[The Grand Wazoo]

Hopefully, now that Martin's question has been answered, he won't mind if I steer this thread gently onto a parallel track, still on the subject of speaker connections, though.


I want to play devil's advocate for a bit because sometimes it's good to question things that are accepted as known truths.

We all accept the often cited theory that spring clip terminals are the spawn of the devil and should be avoided at all costs.
Has anyone actually done a truly dispassionate comparison of them against 'proper' binding posts or socket terminals?
Are they really as bad as all that?
Are there good ones and bad ones?
Is it not possible to make a decent version, because there's no doubting that they're bloody convenient.

Any thoughts?

[realysm42]

*Takes a graceful bow* NP mate ;)

If spring clips are so awful, why would they even enter discussion with the gang here, do good speakers get fitted with them?

What's so bad about them?

[YNWaN]

The only real problem I have with spring clips is that they don't take the thick copper speaker cable I favour.

[Mark Grant]

They don't always have to be brass.

WBT do some nice copper ones:

http://wbt.de/index.php?id=71

Will certainly end any warranty if you start de-soldering stuff.

[Reid Malenfant]

The only real problem I have with spring clips is that they don't take the thick copper speaker cable I favour.
Hmmm, I can think of a few more ;)

The clamping force isn't very high & is reliant on a spring :eek: I prefer to be able to torque down a nut (or bolt) & compress a decent amount of copper so as less air can get into the connection. This should result in less oxidisation of the connection.

[realysm42]

Not a fan of silver Reid?

[Reid Malenfant]

In speaker cables? No, not really. Give me lots of strands of high purity copper & a decent cross sectional area over fancy low resistance metals :)

[realysm42]

You know what I'm going to ask now ;)