Well, here we are, I'd like to describe a labor of love here and also provide some feedback on the Atlona cheap but good locking bananas.
I've learned more about my custom speaker cable than anyone except the geeks here would care to know. Perhaps someone with knowledge of the effects of twisting on capacitance and inductance would care to make a comment.
My speaker cables were made in the late 70's by Lee Wallace. He calls it "Omega cable". It was time to reterminate them and besides, I had to split the amp side to accomodate the biamped Lipinski amps and terminate them with the bananas instead of the spades.
Talk about a labor of love! this weekend I have stripped and tinned and prepped 512 wire ends! Yup, that's 512 individually insulated 20 gauge solid copper ends. It took me about 8 to 10 hours over Saturday and Sunday to do the job. My back is aching!
This cable consists of multiple Teflon sleeves (or some similar material, probably not Teflon as it is not quite as slippery, but it is certainly just as heat resistant as Teflon) over what is apparently 20 gauge solid copper. He used white and clear sleeves to identify positive and negative. First he twists four positives together, then four negatives together and then he twists those together to create a pair, making a group of 8 wires in the pair. This is repeated 8 times for a total of 64 #20 wires or 32 per phase! The whole thing is laced together with lacing cord. What's the equivalent diameter of 32 #20 wires? I'm guessing at least 10 gauge.
So, for biwiring at each end, I had to strip and tin every single one of those wires. Then stuff 32 tinned ends into the Atlona banana. Tie down the lockscrew screw to help the mechanical connection, and then solder the banana with a 700 degree Weller iron. It takes about 10 minutes for the connector to cool down enough to touch it after you fill it with solder. Lather, rinse, repeat.
I'm happy to report that the Atlona "gold plated" connector tins very well and the solder flows very well. That's a good sign that it's good plating, at least. Maybe a few years from now we'll know how good they really are, looking for signs of corrosion. To lock the plugs you can finger tighten them or use a pair of wrenches to get a little tighter. But no need to over tighten, a couple of turns and the plugs are in their tight.
I'm going to have to find some banana to spade adapters when I go back to the Pass Amp as this amp does not take bananas. Damn.... certainly I'm not going to reterminate this cable, ever again!