My speakers sound amazing!

[Confused]

Oddly enough, even measured torqueing of screws and bolts is very inaccurate in terms of the actual load exerted and stress imposed in the bolt.  What matters is the load / extension force on the bolt.  As an example, a super lubricated bolt will impose many times the actual force compared a non lubricated bolt with a given identical torque load.  To be honest, these are speaker bolts were are talking about here, so common sense and a careful touch and lots of feel are what is required and as good as anything.  If you are known amongst your mates as 'Mr gorilla hands' or similar, maybe get someone else to do it!

I missed this post - you sound like you know what you're talking about Confused, I'm just not sure I follow.
Is it that the friction of an unlubrucated bolt will contribute to torque from the wrenches POV (so less torque actually working)? How would you measure the load/exertion force other than torque wrench (at home)?

Just curious. Like you say you can feel a lot with your hands and my 0-20n calibrated wrench seemed useless at low settings. But knowing when to stop is still tricky.

Damn it, now we've started talking about it I'm going to stress about having over-tightened.

Actually I think I know too much, which has somewhat warped my sense of perspective here!  Personally I'd look at Dr Tone's post above, and do what he says!

This is actually quite a complex topic.  You can get some super-lubricants that will allow relatively high load & stress in the bolt for a relatively low torque.  If you have the opposite, say a rough, unlubricated rusty bolt, then you could apply a lot or torque without the bolt (or nut) itself rotating, and if the bolt is not spinning down the threads, it is not putting any tension or load into the bolt.  That said, in the world of domestic speakers all this kind of stuff is pretty irrelevant, all the factors involved will be reasonably constant (unless you have a duff bolt) so if you have manufacturers torque figures, these should be fine as you would expect.  In super critical situations, you can use hydraulic bolt tensioners.  These pull the bolt by a pre-set tension / extension, you then just settle the nut, release the tensioner and you are done, perfect.  We are not talking domestic speaker applications here though!  I think I need to lie down and rest now, just do what Dr Tone said.  Oh, and be very careful......

(Over the next few days I predict tales of Devialet owners ripping bolts through speakers cabinets throughout the known world, 'Hifi_swlon week' it will be known as for all time, in the world of speaker warrantees.....)