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what are the best bolts to use as terminals on a subwoofer box, and where can it be found

thanks

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what are the best bolts to use as terminals on a subwoofer box, and where can it be found

thanks

The ones with least resistance, at your local hardware store! :D

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Picked up some 1/4" brass bolts at 2inch length for about $1.50 I believe... Lowes had them... I found some crazy nice terminal lugs that I will be using so I can easily take out the box when needed...

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Brass Sounds good to me, Least resistance means most Flow of wattage to the subs, And the Cleanest lowest Distorion you can get, I will be using Terminal Bolts and lugs as well. Brass Seems a good conductor. Good thread topic too.

Anyone verify what's the best Metal for this?

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the best ones are the ones that are not used at all..

Why use bolts?

you have to drill a hole anyway.. why not just run the wire straight through and seal it off...

You have to do the same thing with a bolt.. except, with straight wire, no resistance in multiple breaks in connection..

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Does not matters if you use steel, brass or aluminum. There would be very little resistance with any of them.

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the best ones are the ones that are not used at all..

Why use bolts?

you have to drill a hole anyway.. why not just run the wire straight through and seal it off...

You have to do the same thing with a bolt.. except, with straight wire, no resistance in multiple breaks in connection..

It is easier to test the DCR of a single sub in a multi sub setup if every terminal on every coil is accessible without taking the box apart.

Does not matters if you use steel, brass or aluminum. There would be very little resistance with any of them.

I agree. The bolt length is only 3 or less inches long.

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the best ones are the ones that are not used at all..

Why use bolts?

you have to drill a hole anyway.. why not just run the wire straight through and seal it off...

You have to do the same thing with a bolt.. except, with straight wire, no resistance in multiple breaks in connection..

It is easier to test the DCR of a single sub in a multi sub setup if every terminal on every coil is accessible without taking the box apart.

I know.. hence, why use bolts?

I ran all my wires straight out of my wall, one wire per terminal.. you can parallel, series, parallel\series outside of the wall all day long...

Measure DCR, bla bla bla..

All adding bolts does is add resistance.. or for those doing daily and wondering how are they gonna get the wires out of the box.. just run them out of the box...

Many people over-complicate things.. even i do sometimes when i'm not used to doing something...

I see no reason for adding connection-breaks in line with the speaker wire except to say.. oh yea, i use bolts, there they are..

IT's not about just preventing resistance as it is a waste of time and money to use them...

Hell, if someone likes the looks of bolts, just order some specialty copper bolts to go along with the cosmetic look.. might as well go all the way.

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the best ones are the ones that are not used at all..

Why use bolts?

you have to drill a hole anyway.. why not just run the wire straight through and seal it off...

You have to do the same thing with a bolt.. except, with straight wire, no resistance in multiple breaks in connection..

It is easier to test the DCR of a single sub in a multi sub setup if every terminal on every coil is accessible without taking the box apart.

I know.. hence, why use bolts?

I ran all my wires straight out of my wall, one wire per terminal.. you can parallel, series, parallel\series outside of the wall all day long...

Measure DCR, bla bla bla..

All adding bolts does is add resistance.. or for those doing daily and wondering how are they gonna get the wires out of the box.. just run them out of the box...

Many people over-complicate things.. even i do sometimes when i'm not used to doing something...

I see no reason for adding connection-breaks in line with the speaker wire except to say.. oh yea, i use bolts, there they are..

IT's not about just preventing resistance as it is a waste of time and money to use them...

Hell, if someone likes the looks of bolts, just order some specialty copper bolts to go along with the cosmetic look.. might as well go all the way.

I gotcha bro. It is a personal choice. It's all the same imo, bolts or wires (within the context of this thread).

Although I do think it is easier to wire dual voice coil subs, when using 8 or 10 gauge wire, to use bolts as a "distribution point". Most push terminals accept only one 8 or 10 gauge wire (sometimes stuffing two ends of an 8 or 10 gauge wire through a push terminal is impossible without trimming wire). They're are ways around that though. All comes down to personal choice. Neither is wrong imo.

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I gotcha bro. It is a personal choice. It's all the same imo, bolts or wires (within the context of this thread).

Although I do think it is easier to wire dual voice coil subs, when using 8 or 10 gauge wire, to use bolts as a "distribution point". Most push terminals accept only one 8 or 10 gauge wire (sometimes stuffing two ends of an 8 or 10 gauge wire through a push terminal is impossible without trimming wire). They're are ways around that though. All comes down to personal choice. Neither is wrong imo.

That's exactly why I used bolts so I could use 8ga wire without trimming/reducing.

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Sorry for bumping...just my two cents in this old thread...

I am using carol power cable ( you know, used for household wiring ) between my amp and sub. i am using a model with 4 wires in it ( two for plus and two for minus ). this way i get star quad configuration, double insulation and a durable flexible cable with heavy gauge that is priced somewhat reasonably. total overkill of course but the benefit is i can step on it and know it will be ok. i have used speakon and i admire how nicely neutrik connectors lock but while it is very solid on the outside internally the connections in it are compromised i would say. since you're not going to move your subs every day i think you will not get much out of the speed with which speakon can be connected and disconnencted. i think you should go for something simpler like banana plugs terminals  for wire gauge you can calculate % power loss and percent cost ( cable vs driver ) and adjust until the percent is the same. so for example 2% power loss in a cable that costs 2% of what the driver costs.

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Yeah I was wondering why I had thrown some banana clips in my cart on Amazon! I couldn't fit two 8 gauge wires into one of the terminals on my SD3 and even had a hard time putting two 12's crimped down real tight with a small ferrule. But now I can't  remember why I was even looking at them. Damn my memory sucks, what the hell was I doing when I was looking at those??

Edited by ATX.WeenR
Typo

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