How do some of you have your wire connections? The banana plug would be very convenient but how's the connection? Soild? Thanks for your help

I use straight wire and never saw the need for anything else. You know it's in there good and won't come out easily, and you get a good solid connection. Considering how often I rearrange my living room (basically only when I buy new A/V stuff) the convenience factor is not much of an issue. Plus you gotta consider the convenience of *installing* the banana plugs.

After years of straight wire I now run bananas and they seem really solid and they look and sound good so far.

m-mmeyer

I just run straight wires.

Some folks have claimed that banannas don't give as good of a solid connection. As m-mmeyer has posted, his seem solid and no problems. Even with my straight wire connections, I also read that this is good, but, only if you trim back the wire every once in a while to get rid of the oxidized copper. If I do this often, I'll need new cables.

I'm not certain that most of us can really discern a difference in the connection types. (But then, maybe some can.)

Go ahead and try some different ways and see if you can tell a difference. Half the fun of this hobby is tinkering around and/or buying new pieces of equipment anyway.

I just use straight wire for most of my connections. My rear center is actually hooked up with bananas though. Why you ask? Because I had to mount it on a removable shelf (installed JUST for the speaker!) which must be removed every time I need to get in to the attic. I thought the pull down stairs were *SO* cool when I moved in...

I have used everything but spades. Bananas were pretty nice, but make sure you get good quality that aren't too 'springy'. I have also used the pin type connectors (like some of the monster stuff is) and liked the idea, but not the execution. I think the main advantage there is that it is sealed/plated (so you don't have to ever trim like Hi4Head mentioned) and they could be used with spring clip speakers but they were a bit of a pain to install on a regular binding post. I think spades might be the best way to go and next time I jump in the fire, I'll give them a shot. It seems like a lot of high end speaker wires come with spades.

If using straight wire, which I still do on a few connections, just make sure to fit all of the conductors in the binding post and not to let a stray piece of copper touch anything else. There have been posts here and there mentioning strange audio problems from hum to the receiver shutting down that were traced to a poorly made connection with conductor touching something it shouldn't be.

S.

I just used pin connectors on my newly arrived 1050 and MrSandman was right - it was a pain but it was possible.

[This message has been edited by TimRoo (edited January 16, 2002).]

I've used bare wire, pins (although never on a binding post like the 1050 and 750 use), spades, and banana plugs. Bare wire or spades are supposedly the best for a solid connection, but I use bananas for my surrounds because it's easier. I will say that bi-wiring with bare wire can be very difficult if you have heavy-gauge wire (it's somewhat easier with spades, which is what I'm currently doing for my mains and my center channel).

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Gonk

I use the Radio Shack gold -screw on banana plugs. Good quality, easy to put together, and easy to take apart. I've been really happy with them.

Question to all those who bi-wire. I use 12 gauge wire and the problem is I can't fit them both into the post. What do I do from here? The spades I got don't fit around the post as well.

What do you find either 12 gauge or 12 gauge but not 14 gauge in stores?

THanks.

Question to all those who bi-wire. I use 12 gauge wire and the problem is I can't fit them both into the post. What do I do from here? The spades I got don't fit around the post as well.

What do you find either 12 gauge or 12 gauge but not 14 gauge in stores?

THanks.

You could try using spades for one and banana for the other, or bare wire for one and banana for the other.

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Gonk

Mark, do you mean that 2 spades per binding post don't fit or that the spades do not fit the binding post at all? I didn't know that there were multiple sizes of spade connectors used in the audio world, but there definitely are. If the spades you have are just not fitting, you might be able to get bigger (or smaller) ones to work on the binding posts. I've not tried two before, but it seems like it should work. Using a spade or bare wire and a banana like Gonk said would work too.

S.

Edit: I also think there are bananas out there that have a hole in the back so you can stick another banana in it, i.e. piggy-backing the two. It might not look that cool, but it could work. I'm pretty sure I've seen one somewhere, but I can't think of where. Tivoli, maybe???

S^2


[This message has been edited by MrSandman (edited January 21, 2002).]

Standard spades will fit the Outlaw binding posts, but not the larger binding posts of speakers by Paradigm or Definitive Tech (to name two that I know of).

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Gonk

The Radio Shack gold bananas are my favorite. They have a screw adjustment that expands or contracts the plug. As a result, they are easy to insert and then with a turn of the plug, they are set tight into the speaker or amp receptical -- so tight, you essentally can't pull them out.

I've used some locking bananas before, too, and they are nice. Not sure what brand the ones I used were, though.

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Gonk

I just finished my speaker cabling using the Radio Shack gold-plated, crimp-on banana plugs which cost $3.99 each. I used Monster XP speaker wire and soldered the wire to the bananas. They fit very securely into the 1050's terminals and you've got a good gold-to-gold connection. At the speaker end, I used the Monster twist-on pins just because I had them.