Bad Terminal Cup

[cam1134]

I've been using pre-fab boxes for a while and love the simplicity of terminal cups but the past two times I've used them they've quit working.

The first one just quit working one day. It shows no visible signs of any reasons of why it wouldn't work and I get power all the way up to the terminal but it just doesn't conduct through to the other side. The same thing happened to another cup that I took out of an old box I don't use and the same thing happened to it in about two months.

I've solved the problem by just running my speaker wire from my amp to my sub through the port on the box but I just hate the way it looks.

Can anyone explain why this is happening?

Thanks!

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[Kangaroux 5,000+ posts]

Terminal cups are cheap and will break because they are not meant for the power we sent through them. A couple alternatives you have is drill a hole in the box where you need the wire to go through and then silicone it from the inside to seal it, or you could run a bolt through the box and put some ring terminals on your speaker wire then just bolt the terminals on either side of the bolt. This is nice because if you set it up right you can switch around your wiring options real easily by just rearranging the wires

 

[cam1134]

Thanks man, that's the first time I've ever heard of the bolt idea, but I really like it since it doesn't involve waiting for extra terminals in the mail.

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

i have also had issues with cheap terminal cups over the years. bolts are great - just double-up on nuts so they don't want to turn. two wrenches will allow you to tighten the pair of nuts (ha!) and prevent the bolt from turning.

 

[gckless 5,000+ posts]

Parts Express has some really nice binding posts for like $8. I've used them in my boxes, I really like them. A couple bucks more than bolts, but worth it.

Dayton Audio BPA-38G HD Binding Post Pair Gold 091-1245