Spec me some decent banana plugs.

[Grimley]

I'm fed up with the cheap and nasty ones I bought off the bay a few years back. They are OK for multi-stranded cable I suppose, but I use 1.0mm or 1.5mm Single core lighting cable for my HC. The screws on the plugs stick out & the plastic covers either wont go back on.

I've been looking around & Consensus is Nakamanchi/Sewell/Voso look to be OK.

Anyone here own said makes and are they suitable for solid single core cable. I dont really want to rewire my HC TBH for the sake of a dozen Banana plugs thanks.

 

[Demon]

I don't think it's a matter of price, just their design, but then I'd class anything around £1 a plug as cheap..

I use the Fisual Easy Fix plugs, two clamp screws, the cable goes in end on, and the plastic housing hides everything/stops potential shorting.. and £12 for 10..

 

[Psycho Sonny]

stay away from ebay tbh.

you want to buy them from a specialist store or online retailer.

those naka's everyone buys off ebay for cheap are fakes and they use really poor quality materials, for the sake of saving £5 i don't know why people compromise audio quality decent plugs are hardly expensive.

this guys stuff comes highly recommended on avforums

https://markgrant.co.uk/speaker-cab...banana-connectors-screw-terminals-4-pack.html

£4.50 for 4

I don't know why you would look anywhere else tbh

 

[Marsman]

I use Fisual banana plugs as well. Very good quality. Can't go wrong with either those or the ones on Mark Grant's site. Nice to see some reasonably priced things on that site, unlike the £55 kettle lead.

 

[beachBOYken]

I bought some stereo cables from Mark Grant a long time ago now, very good build quality and a reasonable price.

 

[Steedie]

I used the Cambridge Audio ones, no real reason other than they were a nice design and in stock at the time I ordered my kit.

They were quite well priced, £3 for a pair

 

[dl8860]

I bought these from ebay a few months back, very impressed with quality.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/8X-Gold-P...-5mm-Musical-Speaker-Wire-Cable-/252283515001

 

[Psycho Sonny]

I bought these from ebay a few months back, very impressed with quality.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/8X-Gold-P...-5mm-Musical-Speaker-Wire-Cable-/252283515001

have you tested them with a magnet or cracked one open?

i think you will be shocked if you do. they are fakes. why bother with them when like i said you can get decent ones for like a quid more.

 

[pete910]

have you tested them with a magnet or cracked one open?

i think you will be shocked if you do. they are fakes. why bother with them when like i said you can get decent ones for like a quid more.

To be fair, they do state "Gold plated" not solid gold !

 

[Grimley]

stay away from ebay tbh.

This guys stuff comes highly recommended on avforums

https://markgrant.co.uk/speaker-cab...banana-connectors-screw-terminals-4-pack.html

I've bought stuff off his site before or when he was selling direct on AV Forums back in the old days. Agreed on the quality of his stuff.

I ended up getting Sewell ones off the rainforest, 6 pairs for £14. They are despatched direct from Sewell themselves (According to the rainforest) so shouldnt be fakes.

I tend to stay away from the auction site for that sort of stuff TBH.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

To be fair, they do state "Gold plated" not solid gold !

yeah but the stuff the gold is on top of is crap.

would you buy gold plated rocks for example?

why buy cheap nasty fakes when the real deal is only a few pennies more expensive?

sure if the difference was £30+ then you might have an argument. but as my link above shows the real deal costs pennies more

 

[Dr.EM]

It's pure brass as per the description, this is about the best base material in use. It has good conductivity but is harder than copper, which is too soft to hold a good screw thread, and it readily accepts a gold plate.

I've bought plugs like these and they are fine, definitely not a steel base, that would become obvious when I was soldering them if they were! BTW, that is the most critical aspect, making a good soldered connection to them, otherwise you end up with a copper on gold connection at the plug which degrades with time. With that in mind I went with these since they are cheap, single piece and their lower weight makes it easier to solder (the heavier screw fasten ones can require pre-heating with a torch or a very large iron).

10 Solder Type BFA Plugs

A little heatshrink insulates them, tidies them up and colour codes. I understand the soldering aspect may be daunting but bear in mind I did it with a £3.50 hardware shop iron (albeit with a decent aftermarket plated tip) and a cigarette lighter for the heatshrink. Something to hold the cable and plug in alignment during soldering is necessary.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

It's pure brass as per the description, this is about the best base material in use. It has good conductivity but is harder than copper, which is too soft to hold a good screw thread, and it readily accepts a gold plate.

I've bought plugs like these and they are fine, definitely not a steel base, that would become obvious when I was soldering them if they were! BTW, that is the most critical aspect, making a good soldered connection to them, otherwise you end up with a copper on gold connection at the plug which degrades with time. With that in mind I went with these since they are cheap, single piece and their lower weight makes it easier to solder (the heavier screw fasten ones can require pre-heating with a torch or a very large iron).

10 Solder Type BFA Plugs

A little heatshrink insulates them, tidies them up and colour codes. I understand the soldering aspect may be daunting but bear in mind I did it with a £3.50 hardware shop iron (albeit with a decent aftermarket plated tip) and a cigarette lighter for the heatshrink. Something to hold the cable and plug in alignment during soldering is necessary.

some guy tested them using acid/chemicals and found them to be made of iron

it's why i would never buy anything like that off ebay or a dodgy looking site.

 

[Dr.EM]

I haven't used those exact ones, I bought amplifier output posts, contacted seller ahead and he said brass base metal, turned up and they were. It'll be pretty obvious if they aren't, no need to use acid, simply scratch away the gold and/or use a magnet! I suspect a majority on there that state pure brass base indeed will be (some very cheap ones simply say 'metal' and so are probably steel), so they will be as good as anything, my recommendation remains for the solderable plugs however.

 

[pete910]

yeah but the stuff the gold is on top of is crap.

would you buy gold plated rocks for example?

why buy cheap nasty fakes when the real deal is only a few pennies more expensive?

sure if the difference was £30+ then you might have an argument. but as my link above shows the real deal costs pennies more

It was the fact you mentioned checking them with a Magnet which I was pointing out the "Gold plated" bit.

Not quite sure what the "gold plated rocks" have to do with it.

A lot of people buy gold plated jewellery though

I wasn't trying to refute the post in general.

 

[Marsman]

I've got some of those plugs with the Nakamichi name on. I remember now buying some a few years ago. They are connected to a seldom used system downstairs. Technically they aren't fake though, as Nakamichi don't make banana plugs. Fake implies counterfeit. False branding might be better description.

Anyway, apart from using another company's name, these are decent quality. They are the commonly seen ones with what I assume is aluminium casing. The actual plugs aren't iron as a magnet did not attract, so being curious, I took a hacksaw to one. No surprise to see that they are brass. If all these falsely branded Nakamichi plugs were of this quality then they would be a decent enough choice and no worse really that other decent plugs.

Only aluminium, gold, copper and silver (being the best) are better conductive metals. As has already been said, brass is about the best base metal to use. Gold and silver are no good for various reasons. Copper is still too soft really and aluminium apparently is tricky to plate with gold without using nickle first. Not particularly cost effective.

The biggest issue with these falsely branded plugs is that there is no guaranteed standard that you get with genuine brands. There's a video on Youtube of someone with what looks like ones made from iron that he bought from Nakamichiplug, although they do look completely different. Even though these particular ones are decent, surely got to be worth paying the extra few pounds for ones that are guaranteed to be of good quality.

 

[dl8860]

Interesting post Marsman, thanks.

So while I agree with you Psycho that for peace of mind, it probably is worth the extra quid or so, I did get a decent deal as it turns out.

Also, I prefer the look of mine so

 

[Psycho Sonny]

it's why i don't think people should recommend them.

you cannot guarantee what anyone is buying, iron, brass, etc.

for the extra £1 why risk it? like i said if you were saving £30 then sure it's worth a shot but trying to save a buck is pointless when you could end up with some crap made of iron.

 

[Grimley]

OOOH, I think I've opened up a can of worms here!

They arrived today, They look the same as the Nakamanchi ones (Which makes me think Sewell put Nakamanchis name on them for the genuine ones)

Much better quality than the old ones. I did test them with a magnet to be on the safe side though.