Why Banana Plugs?

[admin_exported]

Just wondering... what's the use of Banana Plugs? I understand that it's easier to plug them into the receiver, but that's something I do once. Besides that, they just seem another component that can lower sound quality,

Is there any sound-quality difference between a 1€ and a 91€ plug? Any recomendation from Furutech, HRL, QED, Supra, Chord or WBT?

 

[RobinKidderminster]

Only unplugged mine twice. Much easier to manipulate and with 'big' cable (QED) so much easier to get a good clean connection using Vaselene ! Worth their weight in gold - specially the gold plated ones !

 

[Dan Turner]

I guess it just provides a permanent termination that won't oxidise (as long as they are soldered or compressed onto the cable) and gives maximum ease/convenience for plugging and unplugging in the future. For instance fiddling around with screwing bare wires for 7 speakers into the back of an AV receiver is a complete pain in the backside.

For my AV receiver I just used the cheapest ones I could, but for my hifi I've got Naim plugs soldered on the amp end and QED air-locks on the speaker end. The latter are quite expensive, but I figured I only need to buy 4 of them and only once.

From a SQ perspective I'm sure that theoretically it's best to use (freshly bared) bare wires, securely clamped down, although in practice I doubt there's any real difference between that and decent, securely fastened banana plugs.