WBT spades vs Furutech spades: listening test result

Cable Asylum

Interconnects, speaker wire, power cords. Ask the Cable Guys.

I spent some time today to compare WBT-0660 AG pure silver spades to Furutech FP-201R PCOCC rhodium plated spades.
Speaker cables were Acrotec 6N-1110. These are 6N copper stranded cables with pure copper foil shield. The insulation material is PE, but there is a thin layer of paper between the conductors and the insulation. Anyhow, this is one of the best non-terminated cables you can get in Japan costing over $500 for 10 feet (3 meters) pair. I crimped the strands together with in WBT crimp sleeves.
On the sound: Very little differences. I had to swap them several times to confirm any difference. The Furutech spades sounded a bit tighter, sharper on the high frequencies. I found it a positive thing actually. The WBT seemed a little fuller on the bass, but the difference is so little that I am not sure I would be able to spot the difference in a blind test. All in all, I couldn't find large differences, although I tried hard...
On the construction. The WBT is fully insulated which can be useful if your hot/cold speaker terminals are too close and there is a danger that with a little movement the spades will touch. The WBT has a sandwich structure at the connection part to assure firm contact. The surface of the spades is not smooth; however, there are little dots that are supposed to match WBT speaker terminals. The Furutech has a very smooth mirror-like surface, which assures larger contact area, but you definitely need good force to tighter them properly, otherwise they can slip out of the terminals. This is the only problem I found. I have been using them for a while, and on some speaker terminals I needed pliers to tighten them enough. Today the speaker terminals on the amp are from WBT and those can be tightened very well by hand, so I didn't have this problem today.
On the value: The WBT costs about 5 times as much as the Furutech in Japan. Although there are some elements of the construction that are better on the WBT, but I could find hardly any difference on the sound. I think it is better deal to buy Furutech terminals and spend the money on better cables.
Zozo

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Topic - WBT spades vs Furutech spades: listening test result - Zozo 06:39:41 11/12/03 (2)

Re: WBT spades vs Furutech spades: listening test result - jk 14:33:26 11/13/03 (1)

Re: WBT spades vs Furutech spades: listening test result - Gasmeister 19:37:21 11/13/03 (0)

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