Amplifier wire termination suggestions.

B

Blufuze

New member
I was wondering what everyone’s preferred method is when it comes to the wire terminals at the amps?

Wire ferrules, some kind of adapter, bare wire, etc.

What about speaker wire pants? I’ve seen them used in home audio but not so much in car audio.

I want this install to be safe and look clean and I’m having trouble with stray strands of wire that look like crap. My other amps have had deeper terminals or plastic shields around the terminals. These new amps have neither.



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Yeah, stray strands can be a real problem and thats why I used color coded ferrules in my last install. I also used speaker pants, but all my wiring was on the underside of the amp board, and all you could see was the last 3" of each run, so speaker pants just added a bit of a cool factor.
 
You could tin the very ends with solder just to keep all them strays in check. Still allows some crush factor to the wire when tightening them screws.
 
Ohhhh! That's a great point. Yes sir, I agree, it mostly works for just speaker gauge wires up to about 8ga. Not so great for 4ga or larger.
 
I tried using ferrules for the first time with my JL Audio XD600/6V2 amp. I had issues though - they actually caused issues with the "clamps" used by JL Audio for the speaker wires. All seemed fine until I went to remove the speaker wires. I found that the top part of the "wire clamp" (not sure what the technical name is - it's a flat piece of metal that pushes down onto the wires as you tighten them) actually came off completely! This happened on multiple channels. It seems that the ferrules were just a little too "stiff" for the type of connections on the JL amp.

I guess there is a reason why JL specifically says "bare wires" in the owners manual. :-)

So I'd be careful with ferrules when certain types of amps!
 
I might practice soldering some scrap 4 gauge wire this weekend. I’d have to order some ferrules for wire that size, but I might like to have them in case the solder doesn’t work out.


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I recently swapped one of my Eclipse amps that uses spades for an old Boston Acoustics amp that is just a hex screw into bare wire. For speaker wire I was having issues getting the 16 gauge to stay secure with bare wire so it was either 12 gauge for my mids and tweeters or ferules. I ordered this cheap kit from Amazon:

710YfOE3X-L._AC_SL1200_.jpg

Ferrule Crimping Tool Kit, Preciva

They are very soft and not great for disconnecting and reconnecting but they work really well for holding firmly. The power and ground connections are setup to accept 2 8 gauge wires each, not sure why but I assume for size reasons. I use 4 gauge to 8 gauge reducers for those so that I only need one of each.
 
I just take extra care with bare wire and crank down on it. If there's too much exposed I trim a little off and try again. With speaker wire I double it up at the end so the set screw will have twice as much to sink its teeth into. Seems to be way more secure this way.
 
jtrosky said:
I tried using ferrules for the first time with my JL Audio XD600/6V2 amp. I had issues though - they actually caused issues with the "clamps" used by JL Audio for the speaker wires. All seemed fine until I went to remove the speaker wires. I found that the top part of the "wire clamp" (not sure what the technical name is - it's a flat piece of metal that pushes down onto the wires as you tighten them) actually came off completely! This happened on multiple channels. It seems that the ferrules were just a little too "stiff" for the type of connections on the JL amp.

I guess there is a reason why JL specifically says "bare wires" in the owners manual. :-)

So I'd be careful with ferrules when certain types of amps!
Click to expand...

I don’t have JL amps...but I have to agree with jtrosky here. I use ferrules for anything bigger than 8 AWG; but after that I find that they are just a pain in the ass. Not all the strands will go in (or the ferrule is slightly too big), but the big one for me is that at times the clamp doesn’t actually lock the cable into the ferrule enough and the cables come out randomly. In fact because they are in a ferrule it’s like they are sitting inside the perfect environment to allow the cables to slide out!

In my latest install I didn’t use any for the speaker terminals. You could solder them to the ferrules I guess...but I just twist the cable and put it where it is supposed to go. No problems and no assing about with goddam ferrules!!

On runs of 0 AWG power cable etc. though yeah...definitely use ferrules.
 
I agree ferrules don't make sense for most input terminals. Those grub screws strip out on soft bare copper half the time, forget about trying to get them to bite onto a metal tube.
 
I later realized that the issue with ferrules and my JL amp was that the ferrules with the colored "collars" on them just didn't go into the JL Audio speaker terminals far enough (the JL amp speaker terminals are very "deep"), which is what caused the JL speaker wire "clamps" to come off (too much pressure was put on the front of the clamp instead of the whole clamp). I *could* have fixed that with the ferrules that don't have that colored "collars", but I left well enough alone - I didn't have any issues using bare wire ends. Turns out that the ferrules were a solution in search of a problem. :-)
 
jtrosky said:
I later realized that the issue with ferrules and my JL amp was that the ferrules with the colored "collars" on them just didn't go into the JL Audio speaker terminals far enough (the JL amp speaker terminals are very "deep"), which is what caused the JL speaker wire "clamps" to come off (too much pressure was put on the front of the clamp instead of the whole clamp). I *could* have fixed that with the ferrules that don't have that colored "collars", but I left well enough alone - I didn't have any issues using bare wire ends. Turns out that the ferrules were a solution in search of a problem. :-)
Click to expand...

I have had the same issue on a few occassions. Really frustrating to have to go back on stuff like this (because of course it happens in the most awkward spots possible!).

However I have a pile of high quality ferrule terminations that are destined for the bin or GumTree (an Australian local buy/sell site)...what was the other problem you solved with them? :thumbsup:
 
Yeah, originally, I bought this kit, which have the plastic "collar" on them - and these are the ones that caused me grief with the JL XD amp (when I had to remove the speaker wires later, I found that they didn't go into the speaker terminals far enough and ended up causing the "clamp" inside the terminal to fall off):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07K17VDF2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

Then after someone mentioned the type without the collar (but still for thinner wires), I bought the exact same ones you linked to above. However, I never even bothered to use them - just left things as they are with bare wires. I figured why fix something that isn't broke... Good to know they work well with the XD amp though - if I ever need to disconnect the speaker wires, maybe I'll throw the ferrules on since I already bought them anyway. :-)

I had used the type without the collar for thicker wires (4AWG, etc), but didn't realize they existed for thinner wires like speaker wires, until after the fact.
 
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