To Banana or not to banana (plug)?

[VBB]

Not sure if these have another common name, but in the live music scene we call them banana plugs.

It appears my Dynaco A25 and my ads L690 both take these plugs. Any reasons to use the singles over the double plugs (besides the color confusion of these duals)?

 

[Silentnet]

Singles will work with oddly spaced binding posts, the doubles will not. So I'd go with singles.

 

[jbjsr]

I use singles.

 

[darkblue94]

Any reasons to use the singles over the double plugs?

No.

 

[Mrv8q]

Depends on the fitment. For some reason, I’ve always thought singles were called bananas,
and doubles were called Pomonas, from Pomona/ITT.

 

[arts]

If you are using a tube power amp,I would strongly recommend that you use a ''locking'' banana to prevent mishaps.And since those (to the best of my knowledge) only come in singles,there's my answer.

 

[musichal]

I want to be able to quickly and easily change speakers even though it's not something we do much at chez musichal. If it happened to be a speaker with non-standard spacing, it would defeat my purpose to use dual bananas, so I use singles. It saves Christine a lot of trouble, and me hearing complaints from her. In fact, when I finally bought some bananas to use and she found out how easy it was, she said, "Why the hell have you been making me stick those wires in those tiny, little holes nobody can really see all this time when you knew about these things all along! That was just mean!"

Singles for convenience in most circumstances, for us.

 

[darkblue94]

I want to be able to quickly and easily change speakers even though it's not something we do much at chez musichal. If it happened to be a speaker with non-standard spacing, it would defeat my purpose to use dual bananas, so I use singles. It saves Christine a lot of trouble, and me hearing complaints from her. In fact, when I finally bought some bananas to use and she found out how easy it was, she said, "Why the hell have you been making me stick those wires in those tiny, little holes nobody can really see all this time when you knew about these things all along! That was just mean!"

Singles for convenience in most circumstances, for us.

The whole point to banana plugs is convenience, it has little to do with connection quality.

 

[BinaryMike]

The whole point to banana plugs is convenience, it has little to do with connection quality.

If they were good enough for General Radio and Hewlett-Packard, then they're good enough for me. Connector quality varies quite a lot these days, however. It's important to seek out products that aren't compromised in some way.

 

[musichal]

The whole point to banana plugs is convenience, it has little to do with connection quality.

Well, I don't fully agree with this because I went through several models of affordable plugs before I found a brand that fit snugly - though I don't remember what that was (have a sack-full of 'em - a lifetime supply for me)... however, the reason I didn't use them previously was because I felt bare copper wire in a five-way binding post was about as good a connection as one could ask, and the price was right. Just qualifying your comment by saying all bananas aren't created equally and the connection hasn't affected SQ to my tin ear.

I have tried pins, soft pins, braids, spade lugs and others in the past, and all made a good-nuff connection. Like someone posted above, locking bananas are a good choice, but not necessary here. I hated the hard pins; never really saw the point but they were free, so what the hey?

 

[FrostEOne]

All my speakers and amplifiers have std spaced banana connectors, I still use singles with them. Leaves options open that way.

 

[darkblue94]

Well, I don't fully agree with this because I went through several models of affordable plugs before I found a brand that fit snugly - though I don't remember what that was (have a sack-full of 'em - a lifetime supply for me)... however, the reason I didn't use them previously was because I felt bare copper wire in a five-way binding post was about as good a connection as one could ask, and the price was right. Just qualifying your comment by saying all bananas aren't created equally and the connection hasn't affected SQ to my tin ear.

I have tried pins, soft pins, braids, spade lugs and others in the past, and all made a good-nuff connection. Like someone posted above, locking bananas are a good choice, but not necessary here. I hated the hard pins; never really saw the point but they were free, so what the hey?

There have certainly been some advancements in banana plug technology and design and some are built to higher standards of quality than the common variety however that doesn't change the fact that they originated to be convenient for quick and numerous connect/disconnect cycles. I've got nothing against them if they are built to high quality standards but they are not preferable to other methods of connection.

 

[VBB]

Good points! I haven't come across an oddly spaced set, but I'd kick myself when I did, with the doubles.

I'll definitely go singles. THANKS! As far as the quality, I guess the gold plated wouldn't hurt, and I suppose solder over screw type?

 

[Blue Shadow]

I won't use singles. There is the possibility of the connectors touching and if the amp is on, some will have a very bad reaction to letting the + touch the -, others don't care.

Pomona makes a fine dual banana plug, the chinese copy can be iffy. I've has some of the knockoffs with problems. They chose to use extended tip set screws, ones with non-threaded tips. Well if you use wire and want it captured by the set screw it must be very thin or the threads of the screw will not reach the threads in the plug. And on one the banana peeled. Pure junk. I stick with Pomona for these now. Good enough for most of the testing instrument companies so I don't need to reinvent the wheel, just use what they use. If it can handle the signal for their test gear should be fine with my rig signals. No shiny yellow metal plating needed.

 

[WaynerN]

The Dynacos will accept duals. Any set on a 3/4" spacing will accept a dual banana plug. Dual plugs are much more secure then singles, especially when the banana part (the spring loaded part) begins to lose its holding power, and they WILL lose their holding power.

You also forgot that there are also BFA banana plugs and they are much better (IMO) then the regular banana plugs. I use them and dual banana plugs exclusively here.

 

[goodolpg]

Thanks Wayner, I was just going to mention BFA's. Many people prefer them, possibly because of larger gripping area with more grip, less prone to pull out unintentionally.

 

[WaynerN]

Thanks Wayner, I was just going to mention BFA's. Many people prefer them, possibly because of larger gripping area with more grip, less prone to pull out unintentionally.

Yes, and I like the larger contact area for electrical signal transfer. They can fail too, but if you are careful, can deliver years of problem free service.

 

[rollcentre]

Another plus one for BFAs. They can also be tensioned to a certain degree to fit tightly in most binding posts I've had.

 

[twiiii]

If the banana plug is split, gold plated, with a tapered center shaft that you can screw in vertically once the plug is connected firmly to the receptacle you will never have an issue. Or if you solder gold pins to the speaker cable and place horizontally in to the post and tighten the thumb knobs very snuggly you will be OK, too. gold spade lugs the mate tightly to the vertical post will work too.

 

[VBB]

Never seen BFAs before. The added contact area looks good, and can these be 'spread' along the opening to keep them snug if they get loose down the road?