Install Question / Speaker Plates / Banana Plugs

wingnut4772

Hi guys,

Well I am back in the HT game after a long absence and I have a silly question...

I am going to run everything from an AV closet to my HT. I was looking at speaker plates for a clean installation. My question is, will all those banana plug connections degrade the signal at all or would it be better to limit them?

I figure I'll need a plate on the inside closet wall and at the actual speaker connection. That would be 4 sets of banana plugs right?( not including the ones in the amp and speaker)

What sayest thou?

tonyb

Hey Darla, long time no see kiddo.

As far as the wall plates go, I don't see a problem as long as you use a good quality one. The school of thought is less is better, but how much exactly it would degrade the signal would be entirely up to the quality of the plates used....thats my story and I'm stickin' to it.

Nice to see ya posting, hope all is well down there.

steveinaz

Welcome back!

I did this exact thing in my first home, in 1990. Of course we're talkin 2 channel, but the same principal. I had the equipment in the "coat closet" of the living room, banana connection wall plates leading to my (back then) Bose 901's; and a plate behind each speaker. Very neat and clean installation. I like bananas for their large surface area of contact.

chindman

Banana plug contact resistance should not exceed 10 milliohms and is typically about 4-7 mOhm. Double that for two way and assume driving an 8 ohm load at 5.6 amps =250 Watts (I bet you'll seldom, if ever, actually reach this even with your parasound!) you are talking about a maximum 120 millivolt drop out of 45 volts.

If you are using 12 gauge speaker wire, a banana contact resistance would amount to increasing cable length by maybe 5 feet. for 16 Gauge less than 2 ft. If the room geometry required this would you hesitate to use a 5 ft longer cable? Would you be having anxieties about the sonic effect? I think these questions answer themselves.

Ignore all claims from anyone that you (or they) can "hear" the difference. You can't. You should ensure that the plugs and sockets in the plate are made of the same material (Doesn't have to be gold, but they mostly are nowadays) to avoid galvanic corrosion.

WilliamM2

I used these at the equipment end and behind my TV:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00390IT7O

I had 9 sets of speaker wires, fiber optic, HDMI, etc to run, and the amount of wall plates and connections would have been ridiculous. Also very easy to install.

Just another option.

wingnut4772

Thanks for the input guys!

P00r

I all,

First I am the new owner of a pair of Monitor 50 that I got for a very good price, only issue is that when I hooked them I found them playing worst than my 30year old RFT K13 Profil (Quite low end speaker that do sound ok!)

So as a technician I decided to dig a bit into the problem, I decided to remove the back connector since it seemed easier, and I was happy to see that the actual cross over is put right on it!

I was less happy to notice that the 2 side wire where twisted and glued together, this is BASIC speaker assembly principle here's the picture...

http://404info.com/Polk_Joke/20110907.jpg

They could have twisted the same polarity but no they made a nice inductor instead...

I understand that those are fairly low end, but couldn't polk to the very least follow best practice when hooking those cheap thing together.

I have removed the twist, removed the fairly resistive bi-amp jumper replaced with a soldered wire internally and they seem to be sounding a bit better, to the very least they are MUCH easier to drive at low volume!

Outfitter03

I believe that the twisted leads with opposite current flow will actually reduce inductance.

P00r

Outfitter03 wrote: »

I believe that the twisted leads with opposite current flow will actually reduce inductance.

so you are telling me I am the lucky owner of a hand tuned resonant system, lucky me...

mantis

I don't usually use speaker plates , I use pass through plates , bare wire on the surround speaker side and Banana on the amp side.

I like these for pass through
http://www.aifittings.com/

P00r

P00r wrote: »

I all,

First I am the new owner of a pair of Monitor 50 that I got for a very good price, only issue is that when I hooked them I found them playing worst than my 30year old RFT K13 Profil (Quite low end speaker that do sound ok!)

So as a technician I decided to dig a bit into the problem, I decided to remove the back connector since it seemed easier, and I was happy to see that the actual cross over is put right on it!

I was less happy to notice that the 2 side wire where twisted and glued together, this is BASIC speaker assembly principle here's the picture...

http://404info.com/Polk_Joke/20110907.jpg

They could have twisted the same polarity but no they made a nice inductor instead...

I understand that those are fairly low end, but couldn't polk to the very least follow best practice when hooking those cheap thing together.

I have removed the twist, removed the fairly resistive bi-amp jumper replaced with a soldered wire internally and they seem to be sounding a bit better, to the very least they are MUCH easier to drive at low volume!

Ok I modified those thing a bit

The original part list is sparse

Monitor 50

2 * 5.25" woofer, 1 dome tweeter
1 * Baffle in MDF with hot melt glued corner

Crossover
8 uF 50V Capacitor (CRAP!)
9.1 uF 50V Capacitor (CRAP!)
Res .5R 5W * 2 (Ceramic Wirewound)
and there's 1 small mica caps that I wasn't able to see the value

I have replaced the 2 cap with those

CAP 8.0UF 300VAC METAL POLYPRO Digikey pn 495-4140-ND
CAP 9.0UF 10% 750V METAL POLYPRO pn 495-3024-ND
(HAD to take this 750v monster since nothing else was stock)
those are expensive AC (unpolarised) caps that should sound
better than micro electrolytics...

so far I am quite pleased with the result, they sound MUCH better!

Here's 2 pic that show how small the bipolar caps are in those filter...

http://404info.com/Polk_Joke/IMG_20110909_191158.jpg
http://404info.com/Polk_Joke/IMG_20110909_194445.jpg

So if anybody want to improve their's you know how...

the inductor are just correct, they could be bigger wire but they are
acceptable and the small cap that filter the tweeter is a metalized film
which is usually sounding ok...

As for the bi-amp jumper it's gone replaced by a good soldered wire...

niente

I have my speakers all run in wall with wall plates and banana plugs - works just great

Pass though option would provide less connections and far less cost...great idea!

F1nut

P00r, your posts have absolutely nothing to do with the thread topic. Please start your own thread the next time.

P00r

I apologize for posting this in the wrong thread, actually I was posting somewhere else and ended up here, my bad! probably too many tabs open when I did this...

mantis

I find this to be actually cleaner then plates. I like plates but it's a lot of work for nothing especially if your not quick connecting all the time. Then if you are I can see using the Speaker plates.