If your speakers are at their optimal place, why not solder cables directly?

First, no a banana plug isn't a 100% surface contact - and you wouldn't want it to be!  Actually if it were to be 100% contact the contact pressure would be too low to get a really good contact,  A higher pressure line contact is preferable.

My personal preference is for 4mm CuBe 'Z' plugs soldered to the end of the wires.  However, you can't do this with NAC A5 as it's too heavy / stiff and mechanically overloads these types of plug.  (N.B. Some 'Z' plugs are phosphor bronze and this is significantly inferior to CuBe.)

Secondly that's not the only connection you'd need to fix, there's the contact between the binding posts and the crossover and then between the crossover and the drive units as well as the amp end.  There's not much point in removing two removable connectors when there are still six more remaining in series with each drive unit.

I can recall a guy soldering the Linn K600 cable straight onto the crossover of the Linn Kaber speakers he owned at that time. However it doesn't seem practical at all to me ...

Doubt if it’ll do much for resale values either. 

Moderated Post:  Ravenswood, I realise your post was tongue in cheek, but just in case anyone takes it seriously and follows your advice, I have made an edit...

If the internal cables are soldered to the back of the binding posts, you'll be really screwed if you apply just a little too much heat. And once soldered, always soldered so its unlikely you'll find a buyer if you ever want to sell your speakers, so you'll be looking at having to replace the binding posts prior to resale.

In all, not a good idea 

Just use active ATC’s ...... no expensive speaker cables to worry about anymore ! 

Based on the logic of simplification I once soldered my cables directly from the output pcb of my amp, (Rotel RA820), into the crossover of the speakers, (Royds). It was a bit of fun, and yes wildly impractible. Was there a difference? Actually yes.

I used basic components, so wasn't concerned about resale. A few months later I reversed all the mods and that also showed a definite step back.

Would I do it for my S400s? Noòo

steve95775 posted:

Would I do it for my S400s? Noòo

Coward! 

I have pulled the base off and contemplated going active. When I bought them this was my plan, (Naim even said they had an active option in the wind), and being a bit frustrated by the fact this is no longer going to happen, I thought, why not DIY?

But my plan now is to snag a set of S600's and make them active. So much simpler. 

Well, when I worked in hifi retail in the 90's I had seen a few Briks owners who brought the crossovers into the shop when buying cable to have the new cables soldered to the crossover directly with additional runs of the same K20 measured for the drive units. Never once seen any other customer do that though. I never got up close enough to Briks to figure out if there was a reason for this (they were already pretty old back then).

But sound quality issues aside, this makes me think of the episode of the SImpsons where Homer becomes a teacher and sews tweed patched to the elbows of a leather jacket to which Marge points out "Homer, you've ruined a perfectly good jacket." Reply, "Correction, I've ruined two perfectly good jackets!"

If you do this, no one is ever going to want to buy those speakers or amp off you again. And are you really sure that those speakers will be with you death till you part in the same location? Maybe you are, but you'd be the only person in 100 million (not on their death bed) able to make that claim.

I was a Linn and Naim dealer from 1977 to 1987. And this meant that I had a lot of fun!  And plenty of exposure to crazy ideas. Some of which were actually really "sound". I can remember the first time Ivor Teifenbrun put coins under the Isobariks. And a certain JV plugging and unplugging the NAICs, (yes before the days of the SNAIC), between my 32, SNAPS and NAXO. And of course, endless NAC4 games with Naim's wretched early double banana plug.

The whole concept of signal path simplicity, reducing componentry, attention to the little things, naturally leads to thoughts about direct connection of components. The amount of time manufacturers spend getting thing sorted inside their magic black boxes also gives pause to the thought of why not extend the concept further. Fully integrated active speakers from ATC and Linn also emphasize the virtues of direct connections as part of their path to audio purity.

Obviously you have to realise not everyone is as touched as yourself, so be aware of the resale consequences of your actions. And be prepared to pay the service guy a lot of money to fix your mistakes. But it's still fun!