Banana Plug Question (1 Viewer)

[David K.]

Im interested in buying some banana plugs, i like the these
from Vampire wire

but they are a bit expenive for me, i think that many companies find a major distributor and have their names printed on the products, so i googled for some vampire #558 clones

and came across these



http://ww1.onecall.com/PID_3256.htm



but the discription for these plugs do not mention whether or not they are gold plated, which has me concered, if these are indeed fake gold what are the consequences in the long run?

BTW, i did some more research

http://www.cinemasource.com/products...aker_wire.html



and this site said the plugs are gold plated, hard gold or 24 k i do not know.


But ya, the plugs look the same, in the pics, but i dont know what materials are used in the liberty plugs..

but the prices differences are astounding,

vampire $20 for 2 pairs
liberty $8 for 2 pairs

could this be an example of name branding, or are these different plugs....

any how, ya, the main point is what are the consequences if i use fake gold plugs? will they damage my terminals over time? are then bad for my speakers? thanks a bunch.

 

[Rutgar]

Here, Check these out.

http://www.speakerrepair.com/Merchan...ode=AHH_Banana

These are the best banannas I've ever used. Very high quality, and you can't beat the price.

- Rutgar

 

[David K.]

i ordered the non locking ones from that site, and those werent very good quality, they fall out, and the bananas were crooked.

the locking ones you linked are the same ones on ebay sold be various vendors, its mass produced and sellers use stickers and stick the logo names on it.

theyre all over ebay.

 

[Rutgar]

Well, I can't comment on the non-locking one's you ordered. But, I bought 4 sets of the locking one's and they are very high quality, and don't fall out. Moreover, the site states that these are true GLS connectors, and not the cheap knock-offs found at places like E-Bay.

- Rutgar

 

[David K.]

im not familiar with GLS audio, but im 90% sure that the other locking plugs that look similar are probably exactly the same, possibly purchased from the same vendor and then name branded. which is a very common practice.

the previous plugs i purchased were "GLS" too, what made them official "GLS", was a string sticker that came off while i was trying to twist the banana cap on. So this "GLS" brand doesnt impress me. you will also notice that on the so called "knock offs" where it says gls on the plug(same exact location btw), its "insert brand name here" with the exact same string sticker but different text.

 

[Jed M]

I will second Rutgar up on this one. Those are excellent banana plugs for the price. I've never had one fall out or any problems at all for that matter. They seem much better made than my previous boutique banana plugs.

 

[David K.]

no brand sticker



sticky brand sticker



there was also another one that was far cheaper up for auction, but ended on ebay, where the sticker said GLS, it was the same sticker and font that said "Power Pro"

i assume that these are probably purchased overseas like hong kong or taiwan.

 

[David K.]

btw, can anyone explain to me the consequences of using non-gold plated plugs? or fake gold plugs?

 

[David K.]

i found a major over seas distributor, that sells banans that coincidentally look similar to the vampire wire and liberty bananas.

http://www.globalsources.com/gsol/In...0000003844?a=b

are they the same i do not know.

but i did order 8 pairs of the vampire wire and 8 pairs of the liberty plugs, ill compare the two and see if they are identical.

 

[Rutgar]

David, those look like just regular "spring compression" type banannas to me. Like I said (as well as another poster), those GLS banannas are good. But, it's your decision.

As far as "fake" gold plugs, I don't know what you mean.

- Rutgar

 

[Jed M]

David, I don't think you are going to find many banana plugs that are unique to only one company if you look hard enough. The majority of these things (connectors and cables) are mass produced overseas and licensed out to different company's which may jazz it up a bit and sell it for 10x the amount somebody else is. If you really want the best connection, just use bare wire. If you want a nice solid banana plug don't waste your time with high price Vampires, get the locking GLS Audio. I can't speak for the quality of the non-locking ones so I will take your word for it. Also, I don't find it a big deal that clones are sold on Ebay, so is a lot of stuff, including Vampire.

 

[David K.]

ill look into GLS thanks!

regarding the fake gold plugs,

arent there two types? Hard gold and 24k gold, some plugs use gold that is tainted with other minerals to make it look shinier. I think thats when magnetic interference may come into play?

 

[Owen Bartley]

Since I was looking at the GLS plugs as well, I was wondering... other than the solidness of the physical connection (i.e. not having plugs fall out) is there really going to be any difference in plugs in a standard midfi system using basic speaker wire anyway? As Jed said, you would get the purest signal using bare wire, and adding anything into the signal path can introduce noise/artifacts/etc., but would most people not using unique speaker wire even notice the difference between gold, gold plated, and some other non-gold material?

I was looking at the GLS plugs because they (in my opinion) look great, and would make a nice easy connection (which was why I wasn't going to go with locking plugs) for those times you have to move a speaker.

On the other hand, if cheap plugs CAN contribute to an obvious quality loss then I would just leave my bare wire connections.

 

[PaulT]

3/4 of the way down the page (below the WBT connectors)

30-603 Solderless Locking Banana Plug, gold plated, .34" cable opening. $ 5.85 each

http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/speaker-con.html



Look to be the same as the GLS branded ones, for twice the price....

 

[David K.]

ya i saw those too, there was an ebay seller that had the same plugs cheaper then the GLS price, but the auction is already over.

 

[JamesG]

I have the GLS Audio non-locking bananas. I haven't used other bananas, so I can't comment on relative quality, but overall I'm happy with the GLS ones. They seem to be well made and were easy to install. Price was also right.

I do agree with a previous poster who said that they don't fit very tightly. They fit well enough that I'm not worried about them casually falling out, but I suspect there are tighter-fitting bananas on the market.

James

 

[David K.]

I just received my vampire wire bananas, i suspect they are identical to the liberties, and i even found the same connectors at another site called

cable to go

and they were selling a 4 pk for $2.99, there was a $30 minimum, so i but 11x 4 packs. vampire wire was selling them for $20.50 a 4 pack.

the $2.99 ones advertise 12 awg, while the vampires advertise 9-12 awg, so i dont know if theyre the same, the pictures look identical though.

ill compare the three and post the outcome, if they are identical wires looks like vampire charges aclose to %700 mark up to have the plug say vampie on the end.

for the same price of 2 packs of vampire
i purchased 11 packs of no name bananas

------------------------------------------------------

i have a question though, my 11 awg twisted canares will fit through the plastic barrel of my vampires, but not the golden shaft underneath. the gold shaft includes two screws, i would think that the second screw goes on the jacket for strain relief, but since my 11 awg copper cannot fit through the golden shaft with a jacket, can I safely have both screws come into contact with the bare wire? and have the jacket start where the gold shaft ends? there shouldnt be any harm in having both screws having contact with the copper shall it?

the dual screws are set up in the same configuration as these bananas,



is it safe to insert the entire golden portion of the shaft with bare wire and screwing both screws on the bare wire? and have the unstripped portion beginning outside the shaft?

 

[Rutgar]

David, yes it's safe to use both screws on the conductor. The only problem is that connecting them that way will produce a "weak point" at the base of the connector and the wire. If there is too much movement back and forth at this point, the wires will begin to frey. But, if you don't do a lot of plugging, and un-plugging of the wires, and you don't move the speakers around (for cleaning), then it shouldn't cause any problem.

- Rutgar

 

[David K.]

well i will be using adhesive heatshrink aroung the barrel to the speaker wire to make a tight seal, the plastic barrel also extends past the bare wire. shouldnt that be enough reinforcement? i think cobalt cables do the same thing.

 

[David K.]

well i will be using adhesive heatshrink aroung the barrel to the speaker wire to make a tight seal, the plastic barrel also extends past the bare wire. shouldnt that be enough reinforcement? i think cobalt cables do the same thing.