Our rule of thumb is that it's always better to use bare wire as anything placed in line with the signal with only add resistance and possibly other nasty things like interference and incomplete signal transfer. So, it's always better to use the least amount of junctions in a signal path. The caveat is that jacks and spades can sometimes so much more convenient that the potential loss is negligible. In which case, go ahead and use a quality set of spades or banana plugs. For example, in our demonstration rooms where we are regularly changing speakers on a particular set of wire, so we'll leave bananas on for ease of use. If you have a speakers that use a proprietary connection, then bare wire is not possible. No sweat. For questions about a specific set of speakers, just contact us and we'll be glad to help.