Gold or Silver plated spade connectors

[anil]

I have the Renaissance 15a on order. I want to match the plating of the spades I am getting with the material used on the terminals of the speaker. Any thoughts recommendations?

The Best Buy / Magnolia team is suggesting Audioquest 500 series with silver.

 

[amey01]

Silver is a better conductor. Gold does not tarnish as much, and is softer (making a better connection). I have rarely (if ever) seen silver.

 

[twich54]

Magnolia will advise you of where their greatest profit lies, IMO Audioquest is mostly marketing BS but if you feel the need to buy them at least do so with a used pair to save yourself some $$. Paying msrp for any 'boutique wire' registers quite high on the 'Stupid Meter' !

 

[Brandon Hartwick]

Any good quality copper spade will work great, the more important detail is how the connection is terminated, that's actually way more important than whatever it's made from. Most binding posts are brass anyway.

I looked at some of the Cardas copper binding posts for my project but couldn't bring myself to spend over $300 on binding posts.

 

[anil]

Brandon,
I agree with you. What is the material of 15a terminals? The spade plating material should match those to avoid galvanic corrosion.

 

[Brandon Hartwick]

Brandon,
I agree with you. What is the material of 15a terminals? The spade plating material should match those to avoid galvanic corrosion.

From the photos I've seen it looks like ML uses the big WBT binding posts, those use copper for the contact surfaces that's gold plated.

Personally I have rhodium plated copper spades from eBay and they seem to be fine on all my various amplifiers.

WBT Connector 0703-Cu Series NextGen Pole Terminal

WBT 0703-Cu NextGen Pole Terminal WBT nextgen Pole Terminals are designed to control mechanical and electrical vibrations to keep your sound as pure as possible. They accept banana plugs, spades and cable ends, which can be soldered, crimped or even screwed directly to the crossover. Their...

www.partsconnexion.com

 

[anil]

From the photos I've seen it looks like ML uses the big WBT binding posts, those use copper for the contact surfaces that's gold plated.

Personally I have rhodium plated copper spades from eBay and they seem to be fine on all my various amplifiers.

WBT Connector 0703-Cu Series NextGen Pole Terminal

WBT 0703-Cu NextGen Pole Terminal WBT nextgen Pole Terminals are designed to control mechanical and electrical vibrations to keep your sound as pure as possible. They accept banana plugs, spades and cable ends, which can be soldered, crimped or even screwed directly to the crossover. Their...

www.partsconnexion.com

Thank you for the link. It is gold plated terminals. So best to use gold plated spades. The problem with different materials is over time (years) you get galvanic corrosion, which adds a bit of impedance.