I'm looking at my JL 500/5 right now and the speaker wire terminal areas are huge and round. Am I supposed to use banana plugs here? I can't see how bare wire will work.

 

bare wire works fine, there are screws on the top that clamp down on the wire. a heavier guage might be better, or maybe doubling over the bare wire if it's a smaller guage, but will work fine. screws hold it very tight.

 

Yep, you just screw the wire right down.

On a side note, I never did like that design. I much prefer the screw post terminals. If you take an extra 10 mins to put spades on your wires, it gives such a professional feel to it in comparison to the JL way. Still, JL does have an amazing product.