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Speaker wire into amplifier connectors. Best practice question.


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Howdy fellow basshead and audiophiles!

 

I have a quick question on how to best connect speaker wire leads into a new amplifier.  In my case, I have a new Rockville RXH-F5, 5 channel.  I am kind of 'old school', having been previously into car audio in the early '90s up until about 2005, and have just been using factory stuff since....but missed pounding out the jams and now find myself very excited about it again! The new system sounds frickin amazing and and I am blown away by how affordable gear has become.  We get a metric fuckton more for our money than we used to in the old days...

 

Well, on to my question!  This amp has, what seem to be, the most popular type of connectors...the block type-with allen-headed screws to tighten down on the wires.  For the power/ground wire, 4 gauge in my case, the industry best practice seems to be the use of ferrules soldered on to the bare wire and then crimped.  That seems like the most solid and reliable method I have found.  The speaker wires are different in that I can't find such ferrules that are small enough for the speaker terminals.  Right now, I just have the bare wire stuffed in those little holes and then locked down as best as I can with the screws...but this method seems to really suck and I can visualize those wires working themselves out of there with just a slight pull.

 

What method can you guys recommend to attach speaker wire into those types of terminals to result in reliability and effective conduction?  The old-school method was usually the spade-terminal type, which was easy to work with but had it's own problems...like the philips head screws stripping out and being almost impossible to replace... 

Orion XTR amplifiers

Skar subs

 

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You can get a pack of 700 small gauge ferrules on eBay or amazon of random sizes that will work. However, unless the speaker wire you’re using is really small it should be able to make a solid connection Andy not just be pulled out. 

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I just strip enough shielding away to twist the wire and fold it so it is long enough to put inside, then i'll solder the wire as the solder will conform to the hole better without any stray strands of wire.

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Thank you guys!  I located those small ferrules on Amazon and I think I will go that route.  I am building an amp rack and want it to be both good looking and functional enough to unplug and plug stuff back in reliably.  Cheers!

Orion XTR amplifiers

Skar subs

 

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On 4/7/2018 at 3:55 AM, Skullz said:

I just strip enough shielding away to twist the wire and fold it so it is long enough to put inside, then i'll solder the wire as the solder will conform to the hole better without any stray strands of wire.

I ended up doing just that, and that method works just fine.  I don't think the ferrules will offer that much benefit on 14 gauge wire, like they will on larger gauge wire. 

Orion XTR amplifiers

Skar subs

 

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