In reply to:
due to big meaty flanges (guys with meathooks for hands, like me - fine motor skills are not my forte)
thats me!! and when i was setting up my speakers, when i first tried to wind the speaker wire around the posts, i could never get a good connection.
so in a nut shell, with bare wireing with a good connection, will you have a diminished sound, no.. will it be a lot easier with terminated speaker wire, hell yes.
although, with my QS8's, they wouldnt fit on the wall mount with banana plugs, so i just stuck the bare wire in the hole, and screwed it down.. i can only work with what i am given.
bigjohn