Best way to connect speaker wire to an amplifier?

[Koeitje]

Currently I am using just bare wire, which of course is fine but just not very practical when I want to move my amplifier (to clean or when I want to change the layout of the room) and my OCD makes me want to strip the wire once in a while (even though that would make no difference if you just screw them tight enough).

The speaker terminals on my amplifer (Marantz PM-16) are basically 2 flat plates that you screw together. There is no central screw that runs through them. When looking at them I thought I could take out the black things you see on the picture below, but they don't seem to removable. So what are my options here? I can push in a banana connector and tighten it, but that wouldn't be a great connection because of the 2 flat plates. I can't get spades in there either. So what can I do? Are there any connectors that are just a nice thick flat plate 5mm wide or so?

 

[Eetu]

I believe you should be able to remove the black caps to use banana plugs. Try a paper clip or this trick:

Has been working for me (NAD amps).

 

[Koeitje]

I believe you should be able to remove the black caps to use banana plugs. Try a paper clip or this trick:

Has been working for me (NAD amps).

I tried pushing a small pin past it, but I couldn't get it past it. I know the kind of plugs in the video and I have removed those before, but these ones just stomp me. Not even sure if they even can be removed.

Also I can't even unscrew the binding posts entirely to get spades in there.

 

[Eetu]

I found an image of a PM-16 with the caps removed so should be possible. Of course could be a modded / different version. It would be strange for them to have the black color and not come off somehow.

 

[Count Arthur]

Why on earth would they do that in the first place, safety?

Banana plugs are pretty common and most people seem to cope with them without incident.

 

[Koeitje]

I found an image of a PM-16 with the caps removed so should be possible. Of course could be a modded / different version. It would be strange for them to have the black color and not come off somehow. View attachment 56755

The power cable is a mod for sure, but those terminals look the same (I also saw pics of ones with modded terminals). I'm going to stab it some more .

 

[Blumlein 88]

Maybe these right angle spades that will let you use bananas into them would work.

https://www.amazon.com/CESS-Right-Angle-Spade-Binding/dp/B01FX5UIKI

 

[sergeauckland]

Why on earth would they do that in the first place, safety?

Banana plugs are pretty common and most people seem to cope with them without incident.

Yes safety. It's been mandated for several years that 4mm sockets on amplifiers need to be plugged to discourage their use. It's something to do with the thousands of Europeans that were constantly electrocuting themselves by plugging their 'speakers into the mains by mistake after all, a mains socket looks just like the back of an amplifier.......

However, in just about every case, the plugs can be removed with a pin, small screwdriver or pen-knife blade. Of course then Hospital Emergency Departments were full of people cutting their hands trying to get the plugs out.......

S

 

[Koeitje]

I found an image of a PM-16 with the caps removed so should be possible. Of course could be a modded / different version. It would be strange for them to have the black color and not come off somehow. View attachment 56755

You were correct, I managed to get a screw and pulled harder than I was comfortable with to get 'm out. Nice.

 

[Eetu]

You were correct, I managed to get a screw and pulled harder than I was comfortable with to get 'm out. Nice.

Great, nice to hear!

 

[Blumlein 88]

You were correct, I managed to get a screw and pulled harder than I was comfortable with to get 'm out. Nice.

Alright, just don't tell anyone in Brussels about what you did.

 

[Koeitje]

Are there any banana plugs that have to be soldered on? I prefer that over screwing them on.

 

[sergeauckland]

Are there any banana plugs that have to be soldered on? I prefer that over screwing them on.

If you can't find any specifically for soldering, you can take those with a grub screw and just run some solder into the cup. You may need to remove the plating to expose the bare brass as some plating is hard to solder to.

S

 

[Koeitje]

I actually have some connectors, I even forgot I got those a while ago:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32899465852.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.5f8a4c4dpBMyrc

Also have those well known Nakachichichichich (whatever) banana plugs, but those are screw only.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Also have those well known Nakachichichichich (whatever) banana plugs, but those are screw only.

No, they are not. You can solder them.

 

[Koeitje]

No, they are not. You can solder them.

I hope my soldering iron is powerful enough because most of the heat will go into the plug and cable for those by the looks of it.

 

[Doodski]

I hope my soldering iron is powerful enough because most of the heat will go into the plug and cable for those by the looks of it.

Yes, sometimes a under powered soldering iron will become stuck to the piece being soldered. I mean stuck and you'll need another iron to melt the solder and separate the two. Some sort of thermal dynamics occurring there. I've seen it happen several times. The solder melts, then add more solder and then suddenly the iron is stuck to the piece and the iron doesn't have the power to separate them.

 

[Koeitje]

Yes, sometimes a under powered soldering iron will become stuck to the piece being soldered. I mean stuck and you'll need another iron to melt the solder and separate the two. Some sort of thermal dynamics occurring there. I've seen it happen several times. The solder melts, then add more solder and then suddenly the iron is stuck to the piece and the iron doesn't have the power to separate them.

Yes, mine is 70W I think so it should be pretty powerful but even then it wasn't elementary soldering 14 AWG (I believe) wire to the XT60 power connectors for my quadcopters.

 

[Doodski]

Yes, mine is 70W I think so it should be pretty powerful but even then it wasn't elementary soldering 14 AWG (I believe) wire to the XT60 power connectors for my quadcopters.

Yeah, I silver soldered the battery terminal wires for a friends RC car and those wires where very good quality and sunk the heat like it was nothing. It was not the simple job I expected too. I think he had a 40 watter iron. 70 watts should be au plenty. You may need some rosin flux. It makes things easier.

 

[Koeitje]

Yeah, I silver soldered the battery terminal wires for a friends RC car and those wires where very good quality and sunk the heat like it was nothing. It was not the simple job I expected too. I think he had a 40 watter iron. 70 watts should be au plenty. You may need some rosin flux. It makes things easier.

I use very short wires for those power connectors and the entire wire would become too hot to hold. Speaker wire is very long so that will suck up a lot of heat I'm afraid.