Which do you prefer, bare speaker wire or banana plugs? (1 Viewer)

[Geoff S]

Just a curious question, but what do people here use to interconnect their speakers with their amps/receivers? Currently I'm using bare speaker wire connected to the 5 way binding post on my receiver, but am wondering if there is any benifit in using banana plugs instead.

 

[RichardMA]

Banana plugs. I do lots of experimenting, plugging and
unplugging and it's just much easier with banana plugs.
Soundwise, provided the connection is secure (and you'd
be amazed at how many poor banana jacks can be found on
good amps, the sound is identical.
But I know I'm going to audiophile Hell for not using
spades.

 

[Pete Jennings]

But I know I'm going to audiophile Hell for not using spades

ROTFLMAO

 

[ling_w]

Bare wire will oxidize right off the package. Bananas will not form a tight bond, but I do have a few of them since my speakers only takes banans and bare wires with its pressure connector. I use the Audioquest BFA silver banans, which expands on the whole length of the plug. Plus I have some old monster banans on old cables.

On the amp end, they are all spades. Have to wrench them down tight to form a cold weld. More easily done with coppoer spades than brass ones.

 

[DanielSmi]

I use banana's for most of my speakers except my surrounds which are spades. I hear spades are better but one thing with Pioneer receivers is they don't except spades. I definitely wouldn't use bare wire as before mentioned the oxidize especially when the oil from your hands gets on the wire. Another thing to worry about with bare wire is that if you ever bi-amp your speakers with bare wire you must make sure that none of the wires from one terminal come in contact with any other wires from one of the other terminals you could severely damage your amp if any of the wires come in contact with one another, so watch out for any stray wires in the back of your amps.

Daniel Smith

 

[Vlad D]

I use Banana plugs. Only because of ease of use. Couldn't tell you if there is a difference in sound.

 

[Juan_R]

I use banana plugs as well but mostly because I get them for free. I don't know if they sound better or not but it sure makes it easy to plug and unplugged your speakers.

 

[KyleS]

Banana plugs here they are so much easier to use then bare speaker wire or spades. I also do a lot of testing and switching and its so easy to just plug them back in or pull them out.

KyleS

 

[Mike Veroukis]

I use banana plugs as well, mostly just for convenience sake. Before I switched to plugs I would tin the bare wires with solder. That too prevents oxidation and makes it a lot easier to disconnect/re-connect things. However, I wasn't satisfied with it and decided to go with the plugs.

What do people think of tinning their wires???

- Mike

 

[Scott-C]

Banana plugs for me; much easier to deal with and I don't notice any degradation/difference in sound.

 

[Jason Wilcox]

i use pins because my speakers have spring clips and my receiver has some odd connection that only takes bare wire or pins. i couldn't use bare wire eitehr since 12g won't fit in either the speaker or receivers connectors.

 

[RichardMA]

On the amp end, they are all spades. Have to wrench them down tight to form a cold weld. More easily done with coppoer spades than brass ones.

Couple things crop up in connecting to amps or speakers.
1. If they use a plastic hex nut for the terminal with a metal insert, if you try to torque them, they will break so a cold weld joint is out of the question.
The spade must have flat surfaces otherwise the contact
points are small and the connection is weak. Cheap, punched
out spades are pretty bad in this regard (they aren't flat.)
The best banana plugs i've used (for speed and a sure
connection) had a threaded gold plated nut that screwed into
the back of the jack. Underneith the cylindrical hollow
nut is a solid slug that provides the pressure on the wire
to hold it in place. The wire is inserted in a hole in the side of the body. The pressure nut is also bored through so you can piggyback the connectors for bi-wiring, etc.
You can change wires in a few seconds with this system.
These things cost about $2 to $5 each, depending on the
seller.
You can see a picture of one at:
Link Removed

 

[Rodon]

Well this is my first post on this forum. Hello everyone.
I could not see the picture in the link bove so I made one as well:
http://www.sounddomain.com/member_pa...=134477&page=7
It is a picture of a few of my HT connectors.
My Banana connectors are actually Stinger mono connectors model number SMBAN. They are pretty easy to get from Darvex and work real well on my home audio as well.
I run Stinger in my Jeep so that is how I knew about them. I do like that blank inside the banana - You can get real good pressure on the wire and the SMBAN also accepts up to 8ga wire wich is real nice.
You can also input a second banana connector into the rear. Useful in my car audio application.

 

[Geoff S]

I'm going to make the move to banana plugs based on the views posted in this thread about their ease of use and quality in comparison to bare wire.

Any recomendations for exact models? My local retailer carries Monster Cable so any specific Monster connectors?

 

[John Garcia]

In my setup, I could not hear a difference between the two, so I choose to go with bananas for convenience.

 

[KeithH]

I prefer banana plugs and use them with all of my speakers. For one thing, banana plugs are very convenient. Secondly, I am concerned about bare wire oxidizing, as was mentioned already. Thirdly, I always thought of the mess I could have with bare wire or spades if someone knocked a speaker over since these terminations are locked in. I couldn't deal with the idea of a speaker that was tipped pulling on the wire. That could be bad in many respects. Regarding spades, I don't like them because not all binding posts are the same size. It is possible to have speakers and a pre-amp, pre/pro, or receiver with different size binding posts. That can cause problems when buying pre-terminated speaker cables.

 

[John Garcia]

The wire ends will still oxidize with bananas unless you are soldering them on, and even then, there is still the potential for oxidation over time.

 

[Neil N]

Any recomendations for exact models?

I use the ones found here:
http://accessories4less.com/advscrip...06&sPrice=9.99
I've been happy with them. Others often mention Radio Shack gold bananas as a good, affordable option.

 

[Brian Kleinke]

I use mostly banana plugs except in a few places because I didn't have any at the time of set up.
Someday I might move to spades, but for now banana's are fine

 

[Kevin. W]

Banana plugs all the way

Kevin