I've settled what I want in a binding post by reading these forums, basically something with good mechanical torque that won't oxidize over time. Gold plated copper seems ok. But in the EU I'm a bit lost so I'm looking for recommendations for a good quality source. For reference I was going to buy the ones on the diyaudio store, so you know more or less what I was after... It would also be a good way to support this site, which I've been reading very sporadically, but I think it deserves support given the fact that places with knowledgeable people and open discussions are slowly disappearing...
Like I said, I was going to buy some stuff from the diyaudio store but realized it would go through EU customs... Last time I've dealt with them a few years back they messed up a valuable item, I suspect from inspection, and refused to take any responsibility from it. I don't wanna go through the details here, suffice to say I hate them and don't want to deal with them, too many dishonest people accepting dishonest rules... Seen similar complaints all over the EU in other countries so probably not unique to where I'm at, although my case was speciall, they opened a device and messed it up, probably didn't knew how to reassemble it.... Anyway, sorry for this including a bit of a rant, but I'm pissed with everything that's going....
Like I said, I was going to buy some stuff from the diyaudio store but realized it would go through EU customs... Last time I've dealt with them a few years back they messed up a valuable item, I suspect from inspection, and refused to take any responsibility from it. I don't wanna go through the details here, suffice to say I hate them and don't want to deal with them, too many dishonest people accepting dishonest rules... Seen similar complaints all over the EU in other countries so probably not unique to where I'm at, although my case was speciall, they opened a device and messed it up, probably didn't knew how to reassemble it.... Anyway, sorry for this including a bit of a rant, but I'm pissed with everything that's going....
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Copper is worse than hopeless for a binding post, its a very soft metal and close to un-machinable. Brass is the usual low-resistivity metal chosen for such purposes as its hard and machinable. It tarnishes over time, nickel+chrome plating can help with that, but gold plating is again a poor choice on a screw thread as its another very soft metal.
The problem is the postal services in many countries are problematic. I’ve just had a person from Ireland where we’ve made attempts to get a blank PCB to him and twice the office has rejected the item. He tells me other folks in Ireland are also having problems. So now we will have to use a courier but that will probably cost 20 or 30 Euros for him. I had some issues in France and Germany about 2 yrs ago, but now I’m not getting problems anymore. I never have issues shipping to the US, Canada or Australia.
I am using the nickel plated brass dual binding post type from keystone for one of my power amps. The cheap Chinese ones sold on eBay are exactly that “cheap” don’t bother with them.
There is hard and soft gold plating. Edge connectors for pcbs are specified as hard gold plating.
A few years ago, we had an issue with sending a blank pcb to Germany, it was sent back for a delivery reason. Lucky we were not charged for the return. It was resent and was fine that time.
Of late we have a customer sending back an assembled pcb because it’s not working and need to investigate why. We made sure that the sender is sending it tracked and put a value of 1 Euro only so we do not get charged for taxes and duties. We shall see how it turns out.
We’ve never shipped to Ireland so thanks for the heads up.
There is hard and soft gold plating. Edge connectors for pcbs are specified as hard gold plating.
A few years ago, we had an issue with sending a blank pcb to Germany, it was sent back for a delivery reason. Lucky we were not charged for the return. It was resent and was fine that time.
Of late we have a customer sending back an assembled pcb because it’s not working and need to investigate why. We made sure that the sender is sending it tracked and put a value of 1 Euro only so we do not get charged for taxes and duties. We shall see how it turns out.
We’ve never shipped to Ireland so thanks for the heads up.
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I don't agree. I personally machined it, it is not as soft as people think, and it cuts proper with proper tooling and machining "milk". Wire yes, mono core 1mm is bendable, soft, finger thick binding post, no. Try to bend 6mm copper rod easily, let alone something thicker. Copy paste talk from forums from people that just like to read things.
@JdAo If you have machinists in your area, or close by, you can ask them to make it for you. Or purchase Viborg, which i'll always recommend due to amazing quality. Several EU sources, audiophonics, avcorp..
There is, sort of. Silver slows the ingress of copper into gold. You need thicker plating. My bus bars that are 4n copper, plated with 4n copper, then with 4n silver, and 4n gold (no "hard" gold), are still kicking fine, no sign of galvanic corrosion and no leeching. It's been more than 5 years. Same technique Viborg uses in their products.
As far as I know, copper (if it really is such) is subject to an inevitable oxidation process since it reacts with oxygen in an oxide.
Precisely to avoid or reduce this I take care to apply a thin layer of non-conductive (nor serpent-like!
) oil from a well-known Dutch cable manufacturer onto all the exposed areas.Regarding binding post at more than human cost my warm suggestion goes to CMC-858-MU-G which are very nice and also sound very good to my ears.
Anyway I replaced those with ETI BP-20C which however cost quadruple.
As has already been suggested, Viborg ones are also a very good choice (no tie with any vendor/manufacturer) costing a little less than ETI brand.
Also, I use the copper ring terminals from an Italian manufacturer of good electrical equipment (not audio) which are tin plated and which I crimp onto the stripped cables from amp.
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I don't know if what they have is fancy enough for your needs, but the two EU sources for DIY speaker stuff I've used and have been very happy with are Soundimports and Rumoh.
Edit: I realise now you're talking about binding posts for an amp, but I don't see why you couldn't use some of those too provided they're insulated, like the Dayton ones in Soundimports' page.
Edit: I realise now you're talking about binding posts for an amp, but I don't see why you couldn't use some of those too provided they're insulated, like the Dayton ones in Soundimports' page.
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@Bonsai, regarding getting PCBs through Irish customs, this is due to revised TARIC codes that Ireland has adopted. I had multiple issues buying stuff from Rod at sound-au.com and he had pretty much lost patience trying to get stuff through, but I found the code for PCBs is 8473308000 “Electronic Circuit Cards” in their naming convention. When he used this the package got through.
There is a search facility here : https://www.anpost.com/Commerce/SME/InternationalSending/Find-a-TARIC-Commodity-code
I hope this helps all us diy folks here in Ireland 🙂, and of course our trusty suppliers!
There is a search facility here : https://www.anpost.com/Commerce/SME/InternationalSending/Find-a-TARIC-Commodity-code
I hope this helps all us diy folks here in Ireland 🙂, and of course our trusty suppliers!
Audiophonics.fr have a very reasonable selection of binding posts, from basic to luxury. Hificollective, similarly to many other British companies, will take care of EU VAT payments so you are not double charged and don't have to deal with Customs.
Receiving vat/duty liable shipments has been easy since Covid. Just an online form to fill up and pay on the CTT site. Not even once during the last few years has any of my shipments been physically examined.
Here's a range from italy: https://www.audiogears.it/category.php~idx~~~36~~BINDING+POSTS~.html
this one's in Germany: https://www.don-audio.com/Bananenstecker-und-Buchsen
France: https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/binding-posts-terminals-c-240.html
Netherland: http://www.acoustic-dimension.com/
(My favorites are either labratory-equipment, or the furutech, both aren't what you are looking for...)
this one's in Germany: https://www.don-audio.com/Bananenstecker-und-Buchsen
France: https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/binding-posts-terminals-c-240.html
Netherland: http://www.acoustic-dimension.com/
(My favorites are either labratory-equipment, or the furutech, both aren't what you are looking for...)
@Mark Tillotson
You're right, I didn't mean pure copper. But regarding the platting something puzzles me with that bold statement because from the top of the line expensive brands like WBT to even the ones sold by diyaudiostore.com, they all advertize 24k gold platting. I guess it's good for a few uses and then the platting starts getting scrapped away ?
You're right, I didn't mean pure copper. But regarding the platting something puzzles me with that bold statement because from the top of the line expensive brands like WBT to even the ones sold by diyaudiostore.com, they all advertize 24k gold platting. I guess it's good for a few uses and then the platting starts getting scrapped away ?
Curious to what was the reason they invoked, although my experience is they make up what they want... I've seen someone accused of illegaly selling merchandise because he ordered in a big quantity, I think it was shoes in his case.... He was a runner so wanted to have a lot of spares...
Audio Note AN-ONGAKU Speaker Terminal Binding Post, Tellurium Heavy Silver-Plated, Red (CON-024AG)
New from Audio Note, made from Tellurium copper which is 99.5% pure copper and 0.5% Tellurium with silver plating.
Overall length 51mm. Externally they can receive a 5.5mm and over opening spade from the side, also bare wire up to a diameter of 5.25mm from the side and a standard 4mm banana through the top.
The length of the internal threaded part is 25mm. The Washers take up 5mm of this and the nut is 3mm thick. The external part has a diameter of 16mm and height of 25mm. Chassis cut is 11.5mm diameter with 2.5mm x 2.5mm square key to stop rotation once fitted. Thus a keyhole cutout is required.
Sold individually with red or black washers.
I bought two sets of these from parts connection. My set of posts in my two ACA kits were magnetic. I chose silver to match the internal wire I used.
New from Audio Note, made from Tellurium copper which is 99.5% pure copper and 0.5% Tellurium with silver plating.
Overall length 51mm. Externally they can receive a 5.5mm and over opening spade from the side, also bare wire up to a diameter of 5.25mm from the side and a standard 4mm banana through the top.
The length of the internal threaded part is 25mm. The Washers take up 5mm of this and the nut is 3mm thick. The external part has a diameter of 16mm and height of 25mm. Chassis cut is 11.5mm diameter with 2.5mm x 2.5mm square key to stop rotation once fitted. Thus a keyhole cutout is required.
Sold individually with red or black washers.
I bought two sets of these from parts connection. My set of posts in my two ACA kits were magnetic. I chose silver to match the internal wire I used.