Banana Plugs ( Can they Be Fitted To Existing Cable ? )

[admin_exported]

Morning Folks As The Above Subject Suggests, Currently Using Qed Silver Anniversary Speaker cable wired up to My sony amp without theabove plugs. But have noticed recently have had to remove the wires several timand re-fitt them back in because i was not getting all the sound from ethier 1 or 2 of the surround soundspakers Or Most recenty the centre speaker. So thought the best idea would be to use banana plugs instead. can obtain thes seperate but are they easy to fitt to the end of existing bare speaker wire or would you need a special tool to do this

Thanks Regards Colin

 

[fayeanddavid]

Colin,

banana plugs can be purchased separately and fitted diy with something like a screw clamp that holds the cable in place.

Best option though is to have them professionally fitted, normally a crimping tool or soldered isused, gives by far the best results and a very tidy job

Your local hi fi dealer should be able to help, if not QED will offer this service for their own cables, it is worth the inconvenience and cost of being without for a couple of days

 

[Anonymous]

I bought some decent banana plugs from ebay (NaKamichi), and the srew slamp they have hold really solidly cables up to 4mm in thickness so anything under 2 mm can be plyed to make the job even stronger, they are very practical as you can mount and dismount the speakers in seconds, instead of screwing off the terminals fr all 5 speakers.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi xon501 thanks for reply

You wouldnt by any chance still have the e-bay link to these items ?

Thanks Regrds Colin

 

[Anonymous]

You should be able to buy gold plated banana plugs from your local hifi dealer for a couple of quid each. You can either buy screw clamp type or crimped, and if you pick a day when your local dealer has just won a tenner on the gee-gees or is just plain bored he'll probably crimp them on for free.

 

[scene]

If you're going to use the screw clamp ones, worth cleaning the end of the cables first with some acetone and let it dry thoroughly afterwards (this statement was sponsored by ROSPA and the Fire Brigade) before clamping it in place.

If you're feeling really confident, you might want to twist and solder your speaker cable first, before clamping it - here's a good guide: click (do this before attaching the speaker cable at either end). You could use gold solder wire

, if you really wanted to, but I don't thinks it's necessary.

Of course, there are ways not to solder speaker cables: click

 

[Anonymous]

On the "against" side of the solder / crimp debate, consider that you're going to need an awful lot of heat input into the banana plug body if you're not going to get a "dry joint". Not only is this likely to tarnish the banana plug (a fairly easy cleanup if you're patient) but could damage any gold plating on the surface.

If you're going to solder, I would recommend preheating the banana plugs in an electric oven at 250 Celsius for at least half an hour before attempting to solder, using good quality SILVER solder ideally with a separately packaged liquid flux, not flux cored soler wire, and not el cheapo electrical solder from B&Q, and thorough cleaning with acetone before and after soldering as suggested. "Pre-tinning" (loading up the end of the wires with solder first) before making the solder joint proper may also help. BTW nail polish remover is mostly acetone so making a good stand-in.

 

[Anonymous]

Here's the link.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220557417164&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

 

[Anonymous]

Soldering ? Far too much like hard work !

Colin, I use QED Screwlocs on my Silver Anniversary XT.... peachy, quick to terminate, and a dead solid connection.

Worth a butchers.

 

[scene]

Just to clarify. I wasn't really ever suggesting soldering the cable into the banana plugs - although this is the best option - I was suggesting just soldering the end of the cables to give a non-fraying end and to reduce the chance of individual strands breaking under pressure in the screw-lock banana plugs - something I have had happen...

 

[Anonymous]

Aye I knew that Scene.

 

[Garth Man]

col27 just buy these from Maplins, you don't need the QED ones, they look better but have no difference on quality at all

 

[Garth Man]

big ones!!!! sorry about that

 

[Anonymous]

The ones i suggested have double screw locks and are no expensive and are of very good quality, i just screwed them and added some tape on the outside to give it a stronger fit and air seal.

 

[Anonymous]

Garth Man:
, you don't need the QED ones, they look better ....

and will give you a much sturdier connection than those Maplins' that were shown with the single grub screw - which are still £1.99 each, compared to £3.99 for the QED's. I'd pay the extra personally for the better quality product - even if signal transfer is comparable.

If you were to go down the Maplin route, then I think Shark's pack of 4 for £4.99 represents better value for money.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=28642

Those Nakamichi's look nice too though ?