Spade terminals are widely used in many home theatre systems and allow users to enjoy the peace of mind that comes from knowing that the connections between the speaker cable and the input and output devices are completely secure, and are therefore delivering the highest levels of performance and sound quality.
However, the audio world is notoriously 'funny' because audiophiles are often willing to spend large sums of money, on relatively small items such as spade terminals, without actually questioning whether they are getting good value for money or not.
Often consumers assume that a premium price tag equals a premium product, but this is not always the case! Sometimes you may end up paying a high price for a product that is actually less reliable than the cheaper alternative, but because it costs more you assume that it must deliver a better quality of sound.
On the other hand, many people chase after bargains only to find that what they have actually bought is a very low quality, badly made product. Bearing these things in mind, here are some top tips to help you make sure that you get the very best quality spade terminals at the most competitive prices:
1. It's usually best to keep a look out for gold plated spade terminals – if you can not find them the nickel plated ones are still OK to use, but gold plated spades offer better conductivity and are more resistant to corrosion. Gold plated spade terminals are usually slightly more expensive, but the increase in cost is well worth the increased performance.
2. Do not always assume that your local audio store offers the best deal. Brick-and-mortar stores have to pay expensive overheads such as rent and electricity bills, which means that most stores need to charge a higher price for the products they sell in order to make enough money to cover these costs.
3. Carrying out a simple internet search can return pages of results, and most 'web only' companies do not have to pay the same kinds of overheads as their brick-and-mortar cousins, so therefore they can offer a more competitive price on the goods they sell.
4. It's a good idea to try and buy in bulk if you can. For instance, the cost of a single spade terminal may work out to be a couple of dollars once you factor in the cost of delivery and any other charges, which is a lot of money for such a small component! However, if you buy a set of 20 spade terminals the price per item will work out to be much lower. Therefore, if you want to buy spade terminals, it's best to buy a larger quantity and fit them to all of your speaker cables at the same time, rather than just buying a single individual spade terminal.
5. Try to avoid spade terminals that are clearly under-priced. Of course everyone likes to get a bargain, but you need to remember that if you see some spades at a price that is too good to be true, then there will probably be a catch somewhere – and the catch is that usually cheap spades are badly made! Most budget spade connectors tend to have paper thin lugs which are incredibly easy to snap off, so just be sure that your spades have a decent thickness to them and you should not have any problems.