Bolt and nut speaker box terminal question

[Villainstone 10+ year member]

I really dont know what else to call them but anyway. I have seen several times ppl using bolts and nuts for the box terminals. Basically drill two holes in the back of the box and put in 2 bolts with wires w/ring terminals from the speakers to the bolts. Then on the outside of the box wire and ring terminal to the ends of the bolt protruding from the box. I added a pic I found online.

The question is, is this a better design than just drilling one hole for the speaker wire and silicon it?

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[PapaGeno21 10+ year member]

I use allthread, then nylock nuts and then crush washers and wing nuts.

BUT I use one stud per coil. So for each of my subs there are 4 terminals outside the box. Then I have little jumper wires so I can change the ohm load from outside the box.

Makes it a 10 second job for me to swap from .5 to 2 ohms.

 

[PapaGeno21 10+ year member]

I also put wood glue on the studs where they pass through the box to act as a sealer, plus the washers. Never had an issue. Try not to use stainless as that has more resistance than normal steel, and if you can afford it look for copper stuff. I did not bother with copper personally.

 

[Villainstone 10+ year member]

Yeah if I can find copper I will go for it, if not then we will see. But none the less this is an alright option?

 

[fasfocus00 5,000+ posts]

i always run speaker wire into the box with silicone, you can't really get a better connection than copper to copper. i personally don't like the idea of changing metal types between sender and receiver.

 

[gumby688 10+ year member]

Brass works wells to look for the nuts and bolts in the plumbing section.

 

[Villainstone 10+ year member]

you know what now that you mention it. Im in aviation technician school and dissimilar metals can often cause corrosion. Im glad you mentioned that or I never would have remembered lol. I mean it will take a long time for corrosion to occur but it can happen lol. But if I can find copper then I will

 

[gumby688 10+ year member]

Brass is part copper so that would help if you cant find proper copper bolts.

 

[Villainstone 10+ year member]

Dayton Audio BPA-38G HD Binding Post Pair Gold 091-1245 these would be ok

 

[mlstrass 5,000+ posts]

stainless steel works just fine, won't add any resistance. have used them on a million enclosures.

Use 1/4-20 bolts/flat washers/lock nuts. Juse a 1/4" drill so it's tight in the hole. Won't need sealer, especially on a ported box since it has a rather large air leak already....

 

[phemps 10+ year member]

Im weary of using stainless as well although I'm sure it doesn't matter as mlstrass noted. Copper is hard to find but as mentioned before, brass is your next best bet as far as conductivity goes..

 

[mlstrass 5,000+ posts]

I've done mild steel and stainless, never made a diff. Measure them with a DMM if you're worried.....

 

[Villainstone 10+ year member]

Thanks again fellas.

 

[Canaan 10+ year member]

I really dont know what else to call them but anyway. I have seen several times ppl using bolts and nuts for the box terminals. Basically drill two holes in the back of the box and put in 2 bolts with wires w/ring terminals from the speakers to the bolts. Then on the outside of the box wire and ring terminal to the ends of the bolt protruding from the box. I added a pic I found online.
The question is, is this a better design than just drilling one hole for the speaker wire and silicon it?

Wow...I haven't seen that pic in a long time.

That is from a 2-L5 15" build I did in a Ranger over 10yrs ago. I guess you stumbled across my old CarDomain page...lol

To answer your question, pretty much the only reason I use this design is to rewire subs to different loads outside the box.

 

[Villainstone 10+ year member]

Thats awesome what are the odds that the random pic I chose would be a member from here lol. Especially if its a ten year old pic. It also goes to show once you put something online its there forever.