Looking for some good quality banana plugs. I’ve tried several over the years, and haven’t settled on any that I like.
These have been my favorite so far: good clamp for bare wire, plenty of thread engagement to avoid stripping, except they’re a pair and require exact placement of posts.
https://www.parts-express.com/Banana-Plug-Red-090-465
I got some like these. But the pin doesn’t have much thread engagement, easy to strip out. The pin itself squishes the stranded (unsoldered) cable into smaller strands that spread open as pin pushes through, and makes a poor connection. I like that they’re simple with non conductive sides.
These look like the next go arounds, “compression plugs”
https://www.parts-express.com/Compression-Style-Banana-Plug-2-Pr.-091-3622
These have been my favorite so far: good clamp for bare wire, plenty of thread engagement to avoid stripping, except they’re a pair and require exact placement of posts.
https://www.parts-express.com/Banana-Plug-Red-090-465
I got some like these. But the pin doesn’t have much thread engagement, easy to strip out. The pin itself squishes the stranded (unsoldered) cable into smaller strands that spread open as pin pushes through, and makes a poor connection. I like that they’re simple with non conductive sides.
These look like the next go arounds, “compression plugs”
https://www.parts-express.com/Compression-Style-Banana-Plug-2-Pr.-091-3622
Zero issues with these
https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/bana...er-gold-plated-24k-3-o4mm-set-x4-p-12740.html
https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/bana...er-gold-plated-24k-3-o4mm-set-x4-p-12740.html
These double Pamonas are my favorite. They come in many colours, i usually get red and black.
https://www.pomonaelectronics.com/products/hardware/double-banana-plug-solderless-0
dave
https://www.pomonaelectronics.com/products/hardware/double-banana-plug-solderless-0
dave
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_dk...yhifi&store_name=enjoyhifi&_oac=1&_nkw=banana
I have purchased from this company for over 3 years. Never longer than 2 weeks for delivery to date.
I've found some very good cabling via Ali Express or EBay.
I really like a "saw tooth" red copper with silver clad. Very simple pressure weld, or screws with a good deep driver slot or hex. No soldering on my cables if I can help it.
Silly terminal end can screw up a great cable. Rhodium along with brass make for the weak link in many a terminal end and intern a so so cable vs a great cable. Brass with gold clad is another pile of steaming dung. Both work great around salty sea water. I'm not around salty sea water. 🙂
I have purchased from this company for over 3 years. Never longer than 2 weeks for delivery to date.
I've found some very good cabling via Ali Express or EBay.
I really like a "saw tooth" red copper with silver clad. Very simple pressure weld, or screws with a good deep driver slot or hex. No soldering on my cables if I can help it.
Silly terminal end can screw up a great cable. Rhodium along with brass make for the weak link in many a terminal end and intern a so so cable vs a great cable. Brass with gold clad is another pile of steaming dung. Both work great around salty sea water. I'm not around salty sea water. 🙂
Interesting shop. Thanks. Top priced plugs around $300 for 4, bottom $15 for 8. Who pays $300 for 4?
I hate these with a set screw on the side only usefull for kids playing with batteries ... never use these on multimeter .. they are an electric hazard ..
https://www.parts-express.com/Banana-Plug-Red-090-465
https://www.parts-express.com/Banana-Plug-Red-090-465
Soup to nuts in some of these shops. The most I've paid for terminal ends was 28.00 usd and they were Y spade connectors with red copper and heavy silver clad. There are a couple of cable I use from Enjoyhifi and two other companies. I just can't find a better product for the money. I've NEVER had a problem in over 5 years, but with Enjoyhifi for the last 3 or so the shipping has been really fast.
I picked up 10 sets of OCC teflon weaves and 10 sets of OCC/Silver clad with teflon ribbons. All 3 meter and the total was under 1500.00 usd for 20 sets of top of the line speaker cables. Most small cable companies would have to charge 1500.00 to terminate 20 pairs of cables much less buy the whole thing X 20. LOL
I use very good cable and I pay a very good price in comparison to any name brand. It's hard for me to build a cable for any less money. I quit trying. At 67 and a retired heavy mechanic, my hands thank me about 1/2 way through a cable build with 12-30 conductors to strip, twist, stuff and secure per terminal. My hands are hurtin' thinking about it, mercy.
Regards.
I find this remark incredibly uninformed. If you are referring to Enjoyhifi and MOST Chinese companies. What I find is 90% of the same product at 90% less money. Heavy copper SOOW or JSoow is one of the few domestic's I still purchase in bulk. I use 12/2 - 8/2 for BASS cable and longer runs in the back yard.
Save your money and buy a great product "Finished" for pennies on the dollar. I have nothing against any cable manufacture or boutique cable maker, I just happen to know the difference between what is "JUNK" and what is not. You cannot understand the opposition if you know nothing about them. Blanket statements about a whole county of 1.3 billion is just a little critical, Ay? Where are you at with India, or dare I ask? That's another 1.3 billion.
You know a lot about whole countries. LOL.
Some of the hardest working people I've EVER had the pleasure of working around. Chinese and folks from India.
It's funny, labors around the world have one thing in common, we all laugh at the other 85% and what they THINK they know. Ops! did I say that out loud.
I never met a person I didn't like. How they act or what they say might be a problem.🙂
I use these ones. They work well.
https://www.amazon.ca/Banana-FosPower-Plated-Speaker-Connectors/dp/B06Y8YL2DM
https://www.amazon.ca/Banana-FosPower-Plated-Speaker-Connectors/dp/B06Y8YL2DM
The issue it doesn't say what it's made out of. It could be iron, brass, who knows?
Copper is the conductor you want as the underlying material. Not some off the wall stainless, brass, iron or anything else under the sun. Copper or silver. Gold is ok if you sand it off the copper or silver. It is pretty and it has the ability to stay that way. Sand it off and dunk the ends in graphite dust. How cheap is that? Better than eatin' bugs.
Copper is the conductor you want as the underlying material. Not some off the wall stainless, brass, iron or anything else under the sun. Copper or silver. Gold is ok if you sand it off the copper or silver. It is pretty and it has the ability to stay that way. Sand it off and dunk the ends in graphite dust. How cheap is that? Better than eatin' bugs.
Those are neat, but they just don't have enough spring tension to be better than a typical banana plug. I'm curious about these, but they are far too expensive for what they are.
In the end it really is difficult to do any better than Pomona from a connection integrity point of view. Say what you want about the materials used, but most other plugs have quality control issues or design problems. They aren't pretty, but there is a reason they are used by engineers.
In the end it really is difficult to do any better than Pomona from a connection integrity point of view. Say what you want about the materials used, but most other plugs have quality control issues or design problems. They aren't pretty, but there is a reason they are used by engineers.
I got some of these and they are going to be my new go to banana plug. Two things I like about them:
It’s got teeth where you put wire up the back, bend over the teeth, then screw down the front end that smashes copper wire into the teeth. Holds on real tight, doesn’t pull out.
Second there is some rubber around the outside of the barrel. I never mean to touch them together, but it happens all the time.
Sewell SW-29863-12 Deadbolt Banana Plugs 12-Pairs by, Gold Plated Speaker Plugs, Quick Connect https://a.co/d/fOhlFXF
$2.50/pair ($31 for 12 pairs)
It’s got teeth where you put wire up the back, bend over the teeth, then screw down the front end that smashes copper wire into the teeth. Holds on real tight, doesn’t pull out.
Second there is some rubber around the outside of the barrel. I never mean to touch them together, but it happens all the time.
Sewell SW-29863-12 Deadbolt Banana Plugs 12-Pairs by, Gold Plated Speaker Plugs, Quick Connect https://a.co/d/fOhlFXF
$2.50/pair ($31 for 12 pairs)
Attachments
Those are difficult to tighten so they won't come loose. You have to be careful how you fan out the strands so there is even pressure. They're not going to be so pretty after the vice-grips have been used on them.
That's a bit of an oxymoron in my opinion. Banana plugs are fine for test leads. For speaker connections the Neutrik speakON connectors are much better.
That said, I like the Pomona product as well, even if they are more expensive than the ePay options.
Tom
Yeah, I could see that. I had used some smaller gauge wire, so that if it was fanned out evenly, there wasn't enough wire strands to get out of the low part of the teeth: it didn't work. But that was easily remedied by twisting it into a single strand and just sticking out one side, not fanned at all: problem solved, wire squished.
I think this discussion suffers from a poor definition of "adequate" for speaker connectors.
I would say a connector is adequate if it supports the performance of the amplifier driving the load. For instance, magnetic materials can add distortion at high power levels that is more than the amplifier. A very poor connection might lower damping factor or cause something to melt.
Copper alligator clips have been perfectly adequate for me to measure extremely low levels of distortion, like >0.001% at 10KHz at 250W. I would not hesitate to use them for speakers because in my experience they have been extremely reliable and trouble free. That must be why engineers use them, not that engineers know anything. 😉
Here's my proposition. For any of these fancy connectors to be valid, you have to show that they perform better than Pomona jacks or copper alligator clips (steel alligator clips will still give many connectors a run for their money in terms of reliability of connection). Banana jacks may end up having lower contact resistance than alligator clips but that doesn't matter much unless you are using really thick gauge cables.
I like all these new pretty connectors but it's just too embarassing to buy something that doesn't perform as well as basic hardware.
I would say a connector is adequate if it supports the performance of the amplifier driving the load. For instance, magnetic materials can add distortion at high power levels that is more than the amplifier. A very poor connection might lower damping factor or cause something to melt.
Copper alligator clips have been perfectly adequate for me to measure extremely low levels of distortion, like >0.001% at 10KHz at 250W. I would not hesitate to use them for speakers because in my experience they have been extremely reliable and trouble free. That must be why engineers use them, not that engineers know anything. 😉
Here's my proposition. For any of these fancy connectors to be valid, you have to show that they perform better than Pomona jacks or copper alligator clips (steel alligator clips will still give many connectors a run for their money in terms of reliability of connection). Banana jacks may end up having lower contact resistance than alligator clips but that doesn't matter much unless you are using really thick gauge cables.
I like all these new pretty connectors but it's just too embarassing to buy something that doesn't perform as well as basic hardware.