Without reading everything here since I am short on time and trying to go home... Bare wire is better than connecting to a banana plug! There, I said it. I love banana plugs for the "look" and each of disconnecting and reconnecting, but every time you make a connection, you run the risk of some level of signal degradation. Will you hear it? Most likely not, but it has been argued time and time again that bare wire offers the best connection from a signal point of view. Of course, you can get some really crappy wire and run into corrosion, but if you used that same wire and connected it to a banana plug, you'd still have crappy corroding wire.

Farewell - June 4, 2020