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Source For Cable Connects

Thrill Kille

Thrill Kille

Active Member
I'm going to be making my own cables for my new system. The cable (wire) is determined. The type of connects are decided too. But where to find them is my question. Where can I find High Quality Locking Banana and Crimp Banana plugs. Also, Solid Copper Spades. Flat and 45 deg. Sizes 6, 8, and 10. I've looked at sites like Parts Connection, etc. But, by the description the look kinda cheap and not made of the Best, Strongest, or thicker materials.

So where can I find High Quality Connects? Thanks Guys
 
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Thrill Kille said:
I'm going to be making my own cables for my new system. The cable (wire) is determined. The type of connects are decided too. But where to find them is my question. Where can I find High Quality Locking Banana and Crimp Banana plugs. Also, Solid Copper Spades. Flat and 45 deg. Sizes 6, 8, and 10. I've looked at sites like Parts Connection, etc. But, by the description the look kinda cheap and not made of the Best, Strongest, or thicker materials.

So where can I find High Quality Connects? Thanks Guys
Click to expand...

https://www.vampirewire.com/

Personally, I actually prefer Switchcraft 3402AAU RCAs over most higher cost products. Here's a review of some boutique cables using Switchcraft 3502s:
http://www.stereophile.com/content/listening-164#K1FAedMa2U9Blirc.97
 
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Don't go too crazy spending money on the connectors, I have a long standing thread on speaker cable and THD, no matter how I do it, the connector is NOT the bottle neck. I am using all connectors from Amazon only. Spend more money on the speaker cables.......not necessary on exotic cable, but just more pairs of cable in parallel. If you have the patience, scan through this long drawn thread, there might be info for you:

http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/effect-of-speaker-cable-on-thd.764633/

Particular starting from page 8 where it's still on going on using multiple small gauge wires as speaker cable. It's not the end yet as I still waiting for another cable to come in. I just use cheap banana connector because it's not the bottle neck. Forget the $20 gold plated spade connectors!!!
 
While I agree with Alan, I will caution against going too cheap. Go midrange, cheap connectors are frequently sized badly and will damage jacks. Aztec gold blessed by buxom virgins may be a great selling point, but it's far past the point of diminishing returns.
 
@ Alan0354, and loudnoises

I'm not going to buy Expensive connectors. No WBT's etc. I just don't want to use something that is Cheaply made, Substandard materials, and not fit well into and with my equipment. I've looked at some of the links provided. Some stuff I like, some is overpriced. And some are definite possibilities. The Search continues.

My Equipment;
Amps: McIntosh MC2205, MC30
Pre-Pro: Marantz AV7702
L/R: Martin Logan Motion 40's (1st Gen)
C: Martin Logan Motion 8
 
loudnoises said:
While I agree with Alan, I will caution against going too cheap. Go midrange, cheap connectors are frequently sized badly and will damage jacks. Aztec gold blessed by buxom virgins may be a great selling point, but it's far past the point of diminishing returns.
Click to expand...
Agree. Do you have any suggestion on some not so cheap connector, the ones from Amazon are really cheap, the banana plugs fit very loose, I actually have to drill the two post a little off on the chassis to make it a tight fit. It works.

I am born cheap, and I like to challenge the conventional believes. That's part of the thread on speaker cables and THD.
 
Not to hijack the thread. If you want the best sound, not the best look, look inside the amp and speakers. All the talks about how important speaker wires are, you look at inside of the amp, the wires used to connect from the pcb to the connectors might be only 16 gauge or 14 gauge at best. I own an Acurus and a Nakamichi PA-7. You can say the Acurus 200X3 is the low end of audiophile, but the PA-7 stasis designed by Nelson Pass, it is very similar to his famous Threshold S300, it definitely measure up to Mac. The wires inside are pitifully small. I had to double up with 12 gauge wire on both the drive and the ground return. The speakers I have don't fare any better. My pair of floor standing Kef Uni-Q that costed $1100, the wires inside are pitiful. I did a non scientific experiment and beefed up one, then I compare with the other one, I felt the sound is ever slightly better. But of cause, it could be psychosomatic on my part. I beefed up the second speaker, then they sound the same. My JM LAB that costed over 3 times the Kef is slightly better, at least it looked like 14 or 16 gauge. Still, that's very thin.

From my THD test with a resistor that produce distortion, that 10" wire connection from the output pcb of the amp to the connector almost double the THD of my amp from 0.005% at 20KHz to about 0.01%. AND I am using two 10 gauge wires in parallel. As in my thread suggested, I am looking into multiple small gauge wire. If this pans out, I am going to use multiple small wires inside the amp.

Also, I know the connector does increase the THD slightly, I decided to wire three pairs of banana connectors in parallel from inside of the amp to the outside. I am going to use multiple pairs of speaker cables plug into all three sets of connectors to the speaker. This I can tell you that you are going to lower the loss. I have no scientific fact to proof, but I am willing to bet you three pairs of my cheapest banana connectors is going to kick the butt of one set of any exotic connectors people use.

There is a lot of hype in this, some are true, most are highly questionable. I only trust my distortion analyze and the FFT plot.
 
As I said, from measuring, it is not the problem. The connection is a system, banana connection is only one minor piece of of the whole puzzle. Of cause, spade is better, but how much effect in the whole picture? My experiment told me it's only a very small part in the big picture.

I would look inside the amp, get rid of all the cheap lugs connecting the wire to the banana posts, beef up the wire before I complain about the external connectors.

Other stuffs like output speaker protection relay, the output coil that have effect on the THD. Watch out the old mechanical relay that is old. The contact can really cause problem. I use SS relay and have almost no loss across the relay from FFT test.

BTW, from my test, 10ft of monster 12 gauge cable make the distortion goes from 0.014% to 0.14%!!!! 10 times. The speaker cable literally drown out all the other contribution to the THD.
 
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Darkblue94 is right. You can add to that that good connectors might facilitate a better connection, but that's marginal not something to spend mayor buck for unless its like audio jewelry.. (something I quite despise..)

Alan0354 said:
Not to hijack the thread. If you want the best sound, not the best look, look inside the amp and speakers. All the talks about how important speaker wires are, you look at inside of the amp, the wires used to connect from the pcb to the connectors might be only 16 gauge or 14 gauge at best. I own an Acurus and a Nakamichi PA-7. You can say the Acurus 200X3 is the low end of audiophile, but the PA-7 stasis designed by Nelson Pass, it is very similar to his famous Threshold S300, it definitely measure up to Mac. The wires inside are pitifully small. I had to double up with 12 gauge wire on both the drive and the ground return. The speakers I have don't fare any better. My pair of floor standing Kef Uni-Q that costed $1100, the wires inside are pitiful. I did a non scientific experiment and beefed up one, then I compare with the other one, I felt the sound is ever slightly better. But of cause, it could be psychosomatic on my part. I beefed up the second speaker, then they sound the same. My JM LAB that costed over 3 times the Kef is slightly better, at least it looked like 14 or 16 gauge. Still, that's very thin.

From my THD test with a resistor that produce distortion, that 10" wire connection from the output pcb of the amp to the connector almost double the THD of my amp from 0.005% at 20KHz to about 0.01%. AND I am using two 10 gauge wires in parallel. As in my thread suggested, I am looking into multiple small gauge wire. If this pans out, I am going to use multiple small wires inside the amp.

Also, I know the connector does increase the THD slightly, I decided to wire three pairs of banana connectors in parallel from inside of the amp to the outside. I am going to use multiple pairs of speaker cables plug into all three sets of connectors to the speaker. This I can tell you that you are going to lower the loss. I have no scientific fact to proof, but I am willing to bet you three pairs of my cheapest banana connectors is going to kick the butt of one set of any exotic connectors people use.

There is a lot of hype in this, some are true, most are highly questionable. I only trust my distortion analyze and the FFT plot.
Click to expand...

You're totally right on this part. People tend to forget that even in expensive stuff there is crap wire everywhere. I've recapped some speakers that from the outside look amazing; inside, crap wire and elko's as capacitors (perhaps a lousy $0,40 film capacitor on a 4k speaker in the tweeter path..).
If you didn't have already, try and play around with the tweeter capacitor... The gains with different wire are marginal in comparison to the improvement made with capacitors!!
 
Drsnaut said:
Darkblue94 is right. You can add to that that good connectors might facilitate a better connection, but that's marginal not something to spend mayor buck for unless its like audio jewelry.. (something I quite despise..)



You're totally right on this part. People tend to forget that even in expensive stuff there is crap wire everywhere. I've recapped some speakers that from the outside look amazing; inside, crap wire and elko's as capacitors (perhaps a lousy $0,40 film capacitor on a 4k speaker in the tweeter path..).
If you didn't have already, try and play around with the tweeter capacitor... The gains with different wire are marginal in comparison to the improvement made with capacitors!!
Click to expand...
Boy, when I have time, I got to look at those. I never thought about this.

Yep, you have to look at the whole link, work on the ones that matter the most, then after that, go to the next important one, and so on.

The preamp cable to power amp connection is no where close to as critical as the speaker cables, any fat RG58 or RG59 is plenty good enough. There is no high current involve, no large signal involves, it would be crazy to pay big money for those RCA connectors.

Want to make the speaker connection as perfect as possible, go monobloc amp, put each power amp right next to the speaker so the speaker connection is less than 3ft long. Let the connection from the preamp to the power amp long as it does not matter.
 
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Alan0354 said:
Boy, when I have time, I got to look at those. I never thought about this.

Yep, you have to look at the whole link, work on the ones that matter the most, then after that, go to the next important one, and so on.

The preamp cable to power amp connection is no where close to as critical as the speaker cables, any fat RG58 or RG59 is plenty good enough. There is no high current involve, no large signal involves, it would be crazy to pay big money for those RCA connectors.

Want to make the speaker connection as perfect as possible, go monobloc amp, put each power amp right next to the speaker so the speaker connection is less than 3ft long. Let the connection from the preamp to the power amp long as it does not matter.
Click to expand...

It's true that you've got to look at the whole link, but with a decent speaker the capacitor is definitely the bottleneck.

I don't agree with the critical workings of signal cable, and perhaps you'll reassess this after changing of the speaker capacitor. But smearing the cable length out over pre and monoblocks can be a good idea!

Perhaps its good to now let this topic go back to its purpose. In the meantime, you might wanna check the cap test on humble homemade hifi....

cheers!
 
I agree with Alan0354 about the Wiring inside of a Mac. My Pre to Amp to Speaker is going to be 14 ga wire. I'm going to have to go RCA from my Pre to MC30. I need a Rec for a good RCA connect. I'm also leaning towards ALL Spades for my wiring. I.E. spades from MC30 to Speaker. And all spade Jumper cables. As I'm getting rid of the Brass Plate jumper plate.

I still need to find some Solid Copper sz 6 Spades. and The same for my Jumper cables. Which I think I'm going to need a #10 Spade? for that.
 
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