Banana flavored Kool Ade

uplander

Well-Known Member
I'm searching for opinions on who makes the best quality vs price banana plugs. Having been quite surprised at the difference I heard when I made some "Moonshine" speaker cables, I decided to make another set using Canare 4S11 wire. I want to use banana plugs for the sake of convenience when switching speakers in and out of my system. Given the number (and ferocity) of opinions regarding speaker cables, I would guess that there are many viewpoints on the best sounding connectors, and what factors make a connector better than others. Any suggestions? What have you experienced?

By the way, I did do a search, but was overwhelmed by the number of results that came up with "banana" with colons surrounding it. Is there a way of performing a banana search without finding a grinning, dancing piece of fruit?:banana:
 
I like the industrial grade Pomona ones. There are various ways to attach wires; FWIW here's mine. It's generally bad to use a clamp screw against a tinned wire because it quickly loosens. I loop the wire around a short piece of heavy copper house wire and solder it, taking care not to tin beyond the joint. Clean it with alcohol. I then put the wire in the banana and tighten the clamping screw. Or, you can just solder the wire directly if the plug is suited to that, but it takes a big iron.
 
Thanks for the input, Conrad. I'm not sure I follow your description of how you solder them. Are you saying that you solder the tip to keep it from fraying, leaving the section of the wire that will be under the set screw un-tinned?
 
I'm assuming stranded wire, so that shouldn't be under the screw under any conditions, tinned or not. The heavy copper house wire is solid, so I just solder maybe 1/2" of it to the end of the stranded wire, then clamp on the bare solid copper, usually coming off the stranded wire at 90 degrees. Later I'll try for a photo.
 
I like the industrial grade Pomona ones. There are various ways to attach wires; FWIW here's mine. It's generally bad to use a clamp screw against a tinned wire because it quickly loosens. I loop the wire around a short piece of heavy copper house wire and solder it, taking care not to tin beyond the joint. Clean it with alcohol. I then put the wire in the banana and tighten the clamping screw. Or, you can just solder the wire directly if the plug is suited to that, but it takes a big iron.

I managed it recently with my 40w Weller without any difficulty, didn't even need to change to the No 9 bit (from No 7) for the extra heating power. (plug was held in a piece of wood with a hole :) )
 
I just installed a bunch of Nakamichi brand plugs, very nice and quite affordable.
 
I just installed a bunch of Nakamichi brand plugs, very nice and quite affordable.

Thanks for the feedback. I bought a cheap set off the bay that looked to be a no-name version of the same design. They were very cheap and flimsy, so it sounds like the Nak branded plugs are of higher quality. That experiment was what made me post this question. I guess sometimes it pays to not try to save a few pennies.
 
I just installed a bunch of Nakamichi brand plugs, very nice and quite affordable.

I have to second the Nakamichi banana plugs found on that auction site. I initially only bought a set of 4 as I figured they were going to very cheap crap made in you know where. But they are really heavy duty and far from what I expected. For my next order I bought 24, and got them for less than $1 each shipped free. The only issue with these is that that you have to be careful with them while there is a signal going to them. They don't have a plastic spacer that keeps them apart from one another like the all in one dual banana plugs. I simply wrapped some black electrical tape around my negative plugs.
 
I like the rolled banana, sometimes called a Z-plug.

http://www.speakerrepair.com/page/product/waveflex-banana/WF8.html

The ones I use are soldered, rather than using a set screw, but the plug part looks the same. Always fits tight, as the roll gets compressed a bit, on the way in. Light and easy to use. Not too expensive.

Thanks, I like that have been able to get a tighter connection with the "rolled banana" or "Z-plug" type.

There's a high end dealer near me that sells them silver plated but most of the decent ones I've seen have been gold plated. Any sonic differences? Also what are the advantages to soldering over using set screws or crimping? Would the signal flow through the solder as well or better as it would through a direct wire-to-plug contact? Or is it just more secure?

I appreciate the input, guys. I realize this won't make a huge difference, but since I'm taking the time to make the cables I want to make sure I'm not building in a weakness.
 
Thanks for the feedback. I bought a cheap set off the bay that looked to be a no-name version of the same design. They were very cheap and flimsy, so it sounds like the Nak branded plugs are of higher quality. That experiment was what made me post this question. I guess sometimes it pays to not try to save a few pennies.

The Nakamichi plugs actually ARE no-name plugs - they are not genuine Nakamichi products. You can buy the exact same plugs with either 'Nakamichi' or 'Digital' branding on them for about a dollar each. They are pretty good for the money though if you want screw-fitting bananas.

Valab and CMC make more upmarket high-copper-alloy screw fit bananas for about $20 for four.

I really like the low-mass beryllium copper BFA bananas. These are solder-fit but are really easy to work with and sound good.

monarchycable1.jpg
 
Those are the very ones that I use. I prefer a silver solder joint to a set screw on stranded wire.
 
I made my Moonshine cables with Neutrik dual-bananas. They fit the Woods cables perfectly and hold the outer cover of the cable in their internal "teeth". They were less than two-dollars each and I did tin the strands together and used the set screws. Years later in checking none have loosened. :dunno:

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showpost.php?p=3456165&postcount=9

attachment.php


The Neutrik part numbers are NYS508-B (for black) and NYS508-R (for red) and I've seen them offered in Europe in an even broader assortment of odd-ball colors. They're available for as little as $1.50 in quantities of ten elsewhere but Markertek was a pleasure to deal with even when I called them to tell them they left out several of the toothed cable clamps (notice the black insert in the open red plug in the photo below). I recommend these if you're using dual-bananas on either your amps or your speakers, especially with big cables.
 
The Nakamichi plugs actually ARE no-name plugs - they are not genuine Nakamichi products. You can buy the exact same plugs with either 'Nakamichi' or 'Digital' branding on them for about a dollar each. They are pretty good for the money though if you want screw-fitting bananas.

Valab and CMC make more upmarket high-copper-alloy screw fit bananas for about $20 for four.

I really like the low-mass beryllium copper BFA bananas. These are solder-fit but are really easy to work with and sound good.

monarchycable1.jpg

What are the advantages of low mass plugs?

When you say easy to work with, are you referring to having fairly thin metal to heat up with the soldering iron?

Are the ones you are using from Nerve Audio? That's the only type I found that look the same.

Thanks to all for the input!
 
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I like the rolled banana, sometimes called a Z-plug.

http://www.speakerrepair.com/page/product/waveflex-banana/WF8.html

The ones I use are soldered, rather than using a set screw, but the plug part looks the same. Always fits tight, as the roll gets compressed a bit, on the way in. Light and easy to use. Not too expensive.

Ernie, those look good, I like the designed for easy, positive contact, no solder, assembly quality of those bananas, and the price is nice.

:beatnik:
 
Ernie, those look good, I like the designed for easy, positive contact, no solder, assembly quality of those bananas, and the price is nice.

:beatnik:

Looking at the pics, they are the 'nakamichi' plugs with a fancier outer shell. The design is identical! Don't believe the marketing hype on the website about them being revolutionary. They are yanking your chain. This design of BFA has been around for ages and is ultra-common ;)

I've used these screw-type BFAs and I'm not happy with how the screws clamp down on fine-stranded speaker wire. The result is less than ideal IMHO. A copper sleeve crimped over the wire prior to insertion into the banana plug is essential for an acceptable result.

In response to am earlier query, the low mass connectors that I use are made by Multi Contact and I source them from RS Components in Australia. I'm sure they'd be available world-wide. I prefer to source this brand as I'm guaranteed that the quality is good.

The theory surrounding low-mass connectors relates to reducing eddy currents which apparently can occur if you throw a great lump of metal on the end of a comparatively thin conductor.

They are also easy to solder as you re not trying to get a big lump of metal up to temperature.
 
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Thanks for all the input. I have some of these on the way:

http://nerveaudio.com/connectors/gold-banana-z-plugs/

WRT the "nakamichi" style plugs, I installed some of the same type with a different name, and they were an extremely tight fit. However, when I went to remove one, the outer knurled sleeve separated from the threaded collar, which is just press-fit inside. Kind of hard to describe, but it basically self destructed. I'll be soldering my next set.

I've not worked with silver solder before. Is the any special type of flux or other treatment that needs to be used? Or is that not necessary if I use Conrad's suggestion of cleaning it w/ alcohol?

Thanks again.
 
I've not worked with silver solder before. Is the any special type of flux or other treatment that needs to be used? Or is that not necessary if I use Conrad's suggestion of cleaning it w/ alcohol?

Thanks again.

You're going to have to work with a much higher temperature than you would with regular solder. Depending on the job I usually set mine between 640 and 750 Fahrenheit. Personally I think a well-done soldering job is preferable to the screw-down method with bananas, although I have some of the latter as well. This would be especially true with stranded speaker wire IMO.

I think ideally you want low-mass, copper instead of brass, and some kind of typical metal plating like gold for durability. The picture below is off speaker wire I made years ago, and the terminations on one end are Homegrown Audio's rhodium plated banana plugs. The bananas are not exactly the focus of the picture, but you get the idea - their shape is reminiscent of the MBL Radiostrahler speakers :) :

rsz_hpim0947.jpg
 
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