Pearl 18

Termination Options: Bananas or Spades?

Amplifier-End Connector: Multi-Spade, Banana, U-Spade, or V-Spade 

Often, the choice between terminating speaker cables with spade plugs or banana plugs will come down to personal preference. However, today’s EU-compliant isolated binding posts are being used on more power amplifiers than ever before. This sometimes makes it difficult, if not impossible, to use a banana connector.

Further, given the girth and weight of our Mythical Creature Series speaker cables, a spade may be better capable of fully supporting the cable. This is particularly a concern with binding posts that do not allow a banana connector to fully seat into the post. Further, the EU-compliant posts will neither accept our V-Spade nor allow our Multi-Spade to be fully seated. For these applications (or when you’re not certain), we highly recommend the U-Spade, as it can accommodate any binding post. The V-Spade is a specialty spade connector that works well with large wingnut binding posts (such as the Mundorf ), as it allows extra clearance.

Speaker-End Connector: Spade or Banana (Silver only)

Here we typically recommend the U-Spade or banana connector. However, even though there is less weight and pressure on this side of the cable (particularly for BiWire sets), it is nevertheless important to note the binding post’s design. If a banana connector cannot seat all the way into the binding post, we recommend one of our spade connectors.