banana plug?

T

travelin travis

New member
Just got a set of passive monitors and some 10 gauge speaker wire. It's a pain in the ass trying to insert the wire ends into the connectors on the amp and speakers. Is there a downside to using banana plugs?
 
Actually a banana plug will work for that pupose as to the fact that the guage wire is usually to big to fit in a binding post however using a banana plug is not really taking advantage of a higher guage wire do to the fact that it only makes a certain % of a connection to the wire. you would probably be better served going down to a 12awg wire and being able to use the binding post.
 
Out of curiosity, how is it that a banana plug make a different connection than binding post? It seems to me that a banana plug is an awful lot like a binding post. It functions the same way. What does seem different to me is that when you use a banana plug you are still using the binding posts on the speaker, but you have an extra layer that your signal is connecting (degrading? ) through, the banana spades.
 
xstatic said:
Out of curiosity, how is it that a banana plug make a different connection than binding post? It seems to me that a banana plug is an awful lot like a binding post. It functions the same way. What does seem different to me is that when you use a banana plug you are still using the binding posts on the speaker, but you have an extra layer that your signal is connecting (degrading? ) through, the banana spades.
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I did a little reading on banana plugs. Supposedly, regular banana plugs only make contact at a couple of points with the binding posts. "Rolled" banana plugs supposedly contact more surface area of the binding posts. I don't know how to tell if a banana plug is rolled though. :confused:
 
petermiller said:
Actually a banana plug will work for that pupose as to the fact that the guage wire is usually to big to fit in a binding post however using a banana plug is not really taking advantage of a higher guage wire do to the fact that it only makes a certain % of a connection to the wire. you would probably be better served going down to a 12awg wire and being able to use the binding post.
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I got the 10 ga wire because I read that lows are'nt fully reproduced with anything less than 10 ga wire. I don't have any other speaker wire to compare it to so I really don't know. I'm just trying to put together the best monitoring setup with the little money that I have.
 
TravisinFlorida said:
I got the 10 ga wire because I read that lows are'nt fully reproduced with anything less than 10 ga wire. I don't have any other speaker wire to compare it to so I really don't know. I'm just trying to put together the best monitoring setup with the little money that I have.
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At what cable length? The difference in resistance for a 10 ft cable between 10 and 12 ga into 8 ohms is something like 0.02dB. Even poor 16ga cable only loses 0.08dB compared to 10 ga.

I don't think I would lose a lot of sleep over this. If the banana plug fits, use it. If you pop open the monitors, I bet there's 16ga or less inside.
 
mshilarious said:
At what cable length? The difference in resistance for a 10 ft cable between 10 and 12 ga into 8 ohms is something like 0.02dB. Even poor 16ga cable only loses 0.08dB compared to 10 ga.

I don't think I would lose a lot of sleep over this. If the banana plug fits, use it. If you pop open the monitors, I bet there's 16ga or less inside.
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Are those losses across the entire frequency range? I'm not real savvy when it comes to all this stuff. I first read about the 10 ga wire in this article:

http://www.mojopie.com/monitoring2005.html

I read alot of other mentions about using the biggest speaker wire available so I just went with it. My speaker wires are 10 ft. each.
 
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TravisinFlorida said:
Are those losses across the entire frequency range?
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No, that is based on nominal impedance of the driver, you would have to consult the driver's impedance chart at the frequency you were interested in, and take into account crossover design too. But it isn't suddenly going to be a 3dB loss or anything. Also consider the performance of your monitors--I doubt they are flat to 20Hz, so any losses down there because of the cable are relatively trivial.

http://www.mojopie.com/monitoring2005.html

I read alot of other mentions about using the biggest speaker wire available so I just went with it. My speaker wires are 10 ft. each.
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I'm not thrilled with unquantified claims like those in that article about cable. Having said that, there is nothing wrong with using 10 ga. It isn't that much more expensive so why not? My point is simply that a banana plug is going to introduce a weensy bit of added impedance which is almost certainly totally, completely inaudible.

If I get bored tomorrow, I might even test that theory ;)
 
Sure, go with the biggest wire you can get... but don't go nuts. Big wire is mostly to reduce attenuation of power over long distances adn to handle higher amperage loads in short distances (or a combination of the two... lots of amperage and little attenuation). Just remember, the wire is pushing a wave form, not some spectral graph. 99% of what you read in regards to cable being better than other cable is marketing hype. Have a good grasp of ohms law and the skin effect and you know 90% of what there is to know about speaker cable.
 
TravisinFlorida said:
the 10 ga wire fits the binding post but it's a little tricky getting it in there. some of the individual strands try to poke out.
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You should tin the wire ends with solder first, and then you can bend them into shape with some needlenose pliers.
 
MadAudio said:
You should tin the wire ends with solder first, and then you can bend them into shape with some needlenose pliers.
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10 ga cable is fat man! I started to solder the ends of the wire but I'm afraid of burning up my solder tip. I just got a Hakko 936-12 solder station to replace my old crappy radio shack station. It gets pretty hot but the iron is a medium and I think that I would need a large for soldering the ends of these speaker cables. Maybe I could dip them? I wonder if I could just put some solder in the bottom of a can and heat it up on the stove to dip the ends.
 
Whoa!! Hold On!!!!!!!!!

There is a HUGE Audible difference between 10 guage and 12 guage wire at less than 50 feet............




















Just kidding...... :D
 
The dipping idea did'nt work. I could'nt get the wire ends hot enough for the melted solder to stick. I was able to solder the ends of the wires with my solder station though. I ordered a large tip with my solder station and it worked, although not great. At least I can connect / unconnect the wires now without a bunch of little stray strands trying to poke out.

Has anyone here compared the sonic differences in speaker wire guages?
 
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notbradsohner said:
why are you connecting/disconnecting?
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I'll be hauling my recording stuff out to record a demo pretty soon. The recording will be done in a auto shop and I'll have to pack everything up nightly and bring it all home.
 
TravisinFlorida said:
the 10 ga wire fits the binding post but it's a little tricky getting it in there. some of the individual strands try to poke out.
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Take some solder and solder the very end of the cable so the strands stay together, then push that through so that none of the soldered area is in the post.



Tim
 
TravisinFlorida said:
I'll be hauling my recording stuff out to record a demo pretty soon. The recording will be done in a auto shop and I'll have to pack everything up nightly and bring it all home.
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So wouldn't it make more sense to use a smaller gauge wire for that?

As for the difference in wire gauges - those really don't come into effect in a home studio. Where they make a big difference is using tons of power to drive 2x18" Subs in a PA system because you want to deliver maximum amount of power with the least noise and distortion to the speaker. Plus, a certain percentage of te power turns to heat in the transmision via cable, so you want the shortest & fattest cable run you can get away with.

Of course, if you open up a Powered PA speaker, it's usually got 18" guage wire in it. LOL



Tim
 
For setting up your speakers in an auto shop, I am going to guess that the gauge of your speaker wire or the connection type that you choose to use will make absolutely no difference as to the quality of your recording. GO with something quick and easy for portable applications, and then maybe the slightly nicer stuff for when you are staying put for a while.
 
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