Speaker Wall Plates

[Kelemvor]

Howdy,

I ran some speaker wire out to my deck and want to have some wall plates inside to make it look nice. I picked up one similar to this: http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=261-354 at Home Depot for around $15 (I know it's overpriced, I'm just testing).

Then at the local Menards they have ones with plugs like this (same configuration with 4 jacks as above, but the jacks are this style): http://www.home-technology-store.com/detail.aspx?ID=727 for like $5

Main question is, what's the huge difference? My tuners and such have connectors like the second option above. Is there a huge difference between using those and using the fancier ones? I don't use banana clips (again, what extra do they offer) so I don't know if it's worth it to spend the extra money on the first style clip.

Any suggestions?

 

[Howard]

Spring terminals don't offer much contact area and can be loose. I prefer binding posts.

EDIT: You can use bare wire, spade lugs, and banana plugs in almost all binding posts.

 

[Kelemvor]

Originally posted by: Howard
Spring terminals don't offer much contact area and can be loose. I prefer binding posts.

EDIT: You can use bare wire, spade lugs, and banana plugs in almost all binding posts.

I do have a plate likt the first one in my OP and have just screwed the part down right on the wire and it seems to work fine. Just didn't really know if there was much performance difference to warrant that style's extra price.

And what about using Banana Plugs vs. just the bare wire and screwing that in. ANy difference there? WOuld seem that now the signal has one more metal piece to go through and that bare wire would be better... *shrug*

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: FrankyJunior

Originally posted by: Howard
Spring terminals don't offer much contact area and can be loose. I prefer binding posts.

EDIT: You can use bare wire, spade lugs, and banana plugs in almost all binding posts.

I do have a plate likt the first one in my OP and have just screwed the part down right on the wire and it seems to work fine. Just didn't really know if there was much performance difference to warrant that style's extra price.

And what about using Banana Plugs vs. just the bare wire and screwing that in. ANy difference there? WOuld seem that now the signal has one more metal piece to go through and that bare wire would be better... *shrug*

If you solder the wire to a banana plug you won't have to worry about oxidation (banana plugs tend to be gold-plated or better).