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Old Mac Amps Banana to Spade Adapter Plug

mozcho

mozcho

Well-Known Member
For old amps like the MC2205, what's the best and most convenient way to connect speaker cables?

I am currently using these: Banana to Spade Adapter Plug/Speaker Cable Connector. I found prices vary from very cheap to expensive. Do I need to buy copper? Gold plated? Would the material matters much?

Besides these, are there better ideas around? I know bare wires are best for sound but it is a pain every time when changing cables.

And since we're talking about these, what about those banana plugs? Are Nakamichis the best? Or any ordinary ones will do?

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Those will work fine.

They are all brass with gold plating, not sure the brand matters for conductivity. Gold plating isn’t great for conductivity, but it does help prevent corrosion and looks fancy.

The best IMO is crimped spade lug on bare wire, you can solder also if you want to create a corrosion-resistant joint (but crimping first is a better connection, solder is a higher resistance). I prefer rhodium-plated copper if available.

I don’t like the adaptors, they put too much of a lever-arm on the fairly fragile screw-terminal, pretty much a crowbar. If you’re careful then they will be fine anyway.
 
I have these type of connectors but getting them to fit between the terminal barriers is not always easy is my main complaint. Never had an issue with wear caused by leverage even with 12 ga cable. If I had to do over I'd have gone with crimp-ons as c_dk had recommended- mainly for fitment issues.
 
For a few cents you can solder spades to the end of your speaker wires and insulate them with heat shrink. Red for + black for -
At least half of the amps I've seen these on could be made to short the output.
In addition to being a crowbar, the cables plugged in to them easily flop around and touch if you arent extremely careful.
I'm not extremely careful, especially when rolling amps with a cooler full of beer and a dozen guys milling around the room.
Goodbye power transistors!
My opinion: keep this chintzy ebay junk, far far away from your McIntosh equipment!
 
Yeah but.... Where can these solder type spades be sourced? And hopefully they can accept decent gauge wire.
A specific link would be great. I haven't had luck searching for these.
 
lilwing said:
Yeah but.... Where can these solder type spades be sourced? And hopefully they can accept decent gauge wire.
A specific link would be great. I haven't had luck searching for these.
Click to expand...
Any auto parts store will have them.
I buy better ones at my local hardware store called "valley wide fasteners" but terminals are available both with and without plastic sleeves over them.
The ones you crimp, can Also be soldered.
 
Looks like quite some people are doing the same thing from a brief search, but some I don't understand, look at the weird way/orientation of the plugs in the following samples, what are they doing?

1752482-f173e7b9-mcintosh-mc-225-tube-power-amplifier-just-serviced.jpg


1752484-ccdfa353-mcintosh-mc-225-tube-power-amplifier-just-serviced.jpg


1844003-6d22b1a8-mcintosh-mc225-tube-power-amp.jpg
 
The screw that holds the lug down is in sheer so I doubt it will break before the adapters will. I've used them on all my older Mac gear for well over 10 years and never had an issue with them. YMMV.
 
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