Speaker connection on vintage "New Large Advent"

[Steve Lefkowicz]

I'm building up a set of speaker cables for my brother to go between his mid 70s Marantz 2230B and his equally vintage New Large Advents. The amp end will be terminated with a set of Monster gold braided flexible pin connectors, but on the speakers, there are small threaded screws with a cap nuts. Anyone know what size that screw post was on these old Advents? I need to get spade lugs that will fit properly. The cables will Canare 4S11.
I would ask my brother, to measure them, but that would kind of take the surprise out of this.

[Rust]

It's been a looong time but IIRC the terminals took a #8 screw. I would highly recommend a quality lug and not the cheap stuff from a hardware store. Thomas and Betts or Panduit industrial grade if you can't find a suitable "audiophile" set of lugs. IIRC the spacing on the speakers was a bit narrow, much like the terminals blocks on old Mac amplifiers so the width of the lug may matter.

[Steve Lefkowicz]

The hard part is finding a lug that will fit two strands from the 4S11 cable while still being small enough to fit the screw on the speaker. All the nice spades I've seen so far are too big for the screw or too small for the cable.

[Rust]

I do know that there were/are gold plated forked lugs (spades) made specifically for vintage Mac amplifier terminal blocks. Failing that a visit to McMaster-Carr, Grainger, Greybar or similar industrial supply site should readily identify suitable lugs. If the screws in the terminal block are not staked, that is the end of the screw punched to prevent removal/loss, then a ring lug may be used. If worse comes to worse, replace the terminal block with one of more convenient spacing, those old Bakelite terminal blocks are not anything special in terms of electrical properties.

[david k]

Vampire wire makes some great spades for use with wire strips and screws on vintage speakers, I use it with my own installations and 10 awg cables, its called the BAR,

http://www.vampirewire.com/product-page/51ae57c5-c9a4-435b-3b17-464e646ba858

david

[Steve Lefkowicz]

Thanks all. I found what will work nicely from Blue Jeans Cable's web site. Only $8 for the four that I needed.

[Bill Hart]

Man, I used to use large Advents, double pair- wired in series, using big assed amps back in the day, like the Phase Linear. Blown tweeters were pretty common. Wiring was done with zip cord, no terminated ends. This is probably circa 1973? Those things sold like hotcakes back in that era. (The Marantz receivers were nice too--I had one in high school before I jumped in the deep end of the pool).

[Steve Lefkowicz]

My son used the Advents his last three years of college with an mid 70s Luxman integrated amp. When he graduated he gave them back to my brother, who has owned them and the Marantz since they were new. My brother uses them with a few year old Pro-ject turntable. The system sounds very nice overall, but he's been using super thin "speaker cable" that looks more appropriate for a doorbell or something, but not speakers.
Now that he is about to move into his own apartment, my son will use the Luxman with something out of my collection of speakers, probably Direct Acoustics Silent speakers to start, or possibly some DCM TFE200 I've got stored away. Then he'll be getting his own turntable, probably a Music Hall 2.3.

Anyway, I'll be building up speaker cables for both of them with the Canare 4S11.