Speaker setup and terminology questions

[Shadow_Ferret]

OK. When they say "5-way binding posts" or "banana clips," what are they talking about? In my day your speakers had two posts, a negative and a positive, with two screwcaps and you'd twist the speaker wire around each post and screw it on tight. Am I going to have to relearn how to hook up speakers when I get my new system?

Also, here's a hypothetical. Say you have a 5.1 system. The fronts are bookshelfs and all have a freq. response of 58hz-20khz. The rears are small satellites that get a freq. response of 100hz-20khz. What would I set the crossover of the subwoofer at?

Thanks.

 

[tbewick]

I'm not sure about your first question.

I think that you should set the crossover at 80Hz, which is what I believe the old THX standard was. For my Denon AV the system configuration accommodates for the front and rear speakers as being large or small in frequency response. I doubt many movies make full use of low bass in the rear channels anyway.

 

[jaxvon]

You're not crazy, there are still just positive and negative terminals. That said, some speakers allow for bi-wiring or biamping, and therefore have 4 terminals with bridges in case you just use one amp or one set of cables. "5-Way" binding posts refer to a binding post on a component that can accept a connection in 5 ways (though, I can only think of 4). Those would be Spade, Banana, Pin, or Bare Wire. Most components now use these types of binding posts. I've attached a picture of a typical binding post and connectors.

 

[BMXTRIX]

That piqued my curiousity and it sounds like the five connection methods are:
Banana plugs, bare wire wrapped around post, bare wire (or pin) through center hole in post, spade, and clips. The clips being something like an alligator clip just snapping onto the post directly, not locked down by the connector.

 

[MDS]

The 5 ways are Spade, Banana, Pin, Bare Wire, and Dual-Banana, although alot of the posts that are advertised as '5-way' are really only 4-way because you can't use spades due to the little collar at the bottom.

 

[Shadow_Ferret]

OK. Now I have another question. The speaker wire itself. It used to be that any good quality copper wire was fine. I used to just buy spools of 16 gauge wire from Radio Shack for around $20. Now I hear people spending $200 or more just for wire! Is this just hype? I find it hard to believe that they've somehow invented better more conductive miracle wire.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Tons of posts about this, but definitely hype.

16 gauge though may be a little small. Look at 14 gauge at least, perhaps even 12 gauge depending on how much power you need to move.

I bought my stuff on eBay and got a very good value, but places like www.bluejeanscable.com have good stuff as well.

 

[jaxvon]

Shaddow Ferret, some reading material:

Cable Stuff.

That should answer some questions. Yes, those people are crazy. But as BMXTRIX said, heavier guage wire will be best.