Banana plugs?!

[admin_exported]

Hi,

A bit of advice for a newbie again please ladies and gents!

I have only ever used unterminated QED Silver Anniversary XT speaker cable before. As I am in the process of upgrading everything at the moment I have got some new speaker cables. I will be using the Kef 3005SE Speaker package with the Denon 2310.

I have just got a length of QED Bi-wire terminated 4 into 2 with QED airlocs for the centre channel (As it handles up to 60% of sound apparently) For the front channels I have also got 2 lengths of Chord Carnival Silverscreen off ebay

These were advertised as "banana plugs at both ends" but unlike my QED cable that has regular banana plugs at each end one end has what look like female banana plugs (ie a hole!) I'm guessing one of the 2 cables I have is wrong so which is it? Or have I just got something completely wrong and just asked a stupid question?! Also the "female" plugs look like a bit of the plastic might pop off the end of the plugs but I wont try and prime it off unless I know what I'm doing!

Heres whats at one end:

http://www.milty.co.uk/i111c168/AudioConnectors/CC124_Quality_Adaptor.htm?mennum=168

Any ideas?!

Thanks

 

[professorhat]

They sound like they could be extension sockets to me i.e. so you can plug another cable terminated with banana plugs into it and make one long cable.

 

[Anonymous]

They do look as if a regular banana plug would fit snuggly in. So these wont hook up to my amp and speakers at the moment?

 

[professorhat]

Afraid not - they may be regular screw ons though which means you can just unscrew them and then either connect via bare wire or put regular banana plugs on the end. Or of course just chop off the extension bits and put regular plugs on.

 

[Anonymous]

Looks like you've got BFA connectors on one end.

Cyrus use this type on their amps.

As the prof says - cut them off and put banana plugs on.

 

[Anonymous]

Daveee:

They do look as if a regular banana plug would fit snuggly in. So these wont hook up to my amp and speakers at the moment?

Are these plugs at 90 deg , I had these a few years back ?

I suspect they are the plugs that were introduced when banana plugs were banned by the EU a while ago.

Banana plugs are back in , though you do find amps with the socket bunged up , which can easily be prised out.

If you look into the end of the plug you should see a screw to release the cable

Remove the plug and fit the Airlock type you are already using

Hope this helps

 

[Anonymous]

Cheers for the replies so far, I unscrewed the end of the plastic plug and it just looks like a hollow banana plug. Now I'm wondering whether this will just work as regular banana plug?

They aren't at 90 degrees they run flush with the cable itself. This is the link to the exact plug I am referring to:

http://www.milty.co.uk/i111c168/AudioConnectors/CC124_Quality_Adaptor.htm?mennum=168

It is desribed as a "quality adapter" now what the hell is that used for?! It sure isn't a banana plug anyway is it?

 

[Anonymous]

Any ideas anyone? should I get ordering a new pair of cables?

 

[Anonymous]

heystak:Looks like you've got BFA connectors on one end. Cyrus use this type on their amps. As the prof says - cut them off and put banana plugs on.

Spot on Heystak. It was from an Arcam Alpha 10 though not a Cyrus.

God bless this ebayer that forked out god knows how much on an Arcam separates sytem but doesn't even know what connections they've being using

 

[professorhat]

Daveee:Any ideas anyone? should I get ordering a new pair of cables?

No need - if it's wrong, just cut the connectors off and use a bare wire connection until you can get some normal banana plugs.

 

[Sorreltiger]

You have to use special plastic terminals into Arcam amps - I used to have an A85. As the Prof has said, you should be able to remove them and attach banana plugs instead.

 

[Anonymous]

I have used these before. You can unscrew the end and plug it in to your speaker etc.

The idea of this plug is that you can take one that has the cover on and one that is uncovered and link them together to create an extension cable. If I recall correctly they go into banana plug terminals but not the euro-friendly ones that were a little smaller.

Unscrew it and try it out. HTH

 

[Anonymous]

Oh, and if you want to undo them, unscrew one way to take the cover off, then unscrew the exposed plug the other way to get the plug out of the second cover and this exposes the screw holding the cable.

Let me know if you are stuck and I will post up a better description.

 

[Anonymous]

groberton:

If I recall correctly they go into banana plug terminals but not the euro-friendly ones that were a little smaller.

Cheers for the replies Grobertron. These are also described as "banana z plugs" and are exactly the same size as a regular banana plugs when they are placed side by side. Hopefuly they should just fit into the Denon 2310 speaker sockets. Heres what they look like with the plastic cap unscrewed, this is just a different brand but the same as what I have:

http://www.hificables.co.uk/11751/Atlas-Fitted-4mm-Z-Plug--will-fit-Banana-or-BFA-.html