Banana Plugs...That big of a difference?

rodneyat

I recently purchased a bunch of banana plugs from partsexpress.com and decided to hook all of them up tonight. BTW: If you have read the post from Danger Boy under the "Binding Posts" thread, the caps come right off and everyone is happy. Anyway, back to the story, I mainly wanted to do this for simplicity and organization. I did my bi-wired 800i mains first and then the bi-wired 400i...Once I finished those, I could not believe the sound difference. I was not expecting this but it seemed as if the sound was a little fuller and more precise. Is this to be expected? I really did not think I was going to gain any audible difference with the banana plugs. Espcecially since I am still running only some standard 16 gauge wire. I am getting some new 14 gauge wire soon and I am hoping that will make an even bigger difference. These little "tweaks" here and there are all starting to add up!

Rodney

goingganzo

what brand did you get i use ar banana plugs they use a compreson fitting they are prety nice and i can use them with my monster 12 guage caues the exteror os very thick on the cable

dbournival

I have used banana plugs in the past and have found no difference in sound, so I just use bare wire now. What has been everyone else's experience?

juice21

i can't say i've ever really noticed a difference in sound due to the difference in termination method, but going from a cheap 16AWG to a quality 14AWG, or even 12AWG, you WILL notice a difference. so, rodneyat, i think you are going to hear that bigger difference you are hoping for...

dbournival

Do you hear any differences between 14 (or 12) gauge of different brands. I'm wiring my basement with 12 gauge in-wall speaker cable. I can get it for about $80.00 (250 feet) at Home Depot, Monster cable of the same type would be $300+.

Aaron

I wouldn't waste my money on banana plugs for cheap wire nor would I "upgrade" to thicker gauge wire. If you're going to tweak with cables, get the good stuff. Go find some AudioQuest or something that comes terminated with bananas or spades.

Aaron

juice21

dbournival - i would say you notice a bigger difference from jumping to 14AWG to 12 AWG than you do switching brands in the same AWG. i do believe there are differences between HD and MC 12 AWG, but if they are worth the money...???? i am running 14AWG THX certified MC to all speakers, all front's biwired, and i only spent about $130 on all the cable. about 2000' in total. i could have spent alot more, or a little less, but for the little extra i paid, i feel that i am getting my money's worth. so, what is it worth to you is the question...

Aaron

i would say you notice a bigger difference from jumping to 14AWG to 12 AWG than you do switching brands in the same AWG.

I disagree with that. So you're saying that if you switched from some cheap 14AWG to some 12AWG, it would make more of a difference than if you switch to a quality cable like AudioQuest of the same gauge? I think not.

Aaron

TroyD

On short runs, my opinion, going from 14 to 12 will net you almost nothing with the same brand.....longer runs..maybe but I don't know that it would be worth the hassle. Now, if you are going to a higher quality cable, different story.



Troy

goingganzo

i use teh banana plugs beacues it is easer to hook up my wiressence i have to plug in 7 sets of wires into the back of my recever and amp. but i olny use them on my front stafe r,c,l all my surounds i have bare wire becues you cant use banana plugs on f/x 500i they pull it away from the wall a lot. and the differance between cheap wire and good wire is that my good wire has lasted 7 years and i had some cheap stuff that is real nasty the copper is dark and some is black. that is y the oxygen free wire is so good

lax01

I have been slowly moving away from banana plugs because I feel that bare wire gives you the same quality sound, if not better than plugs. I still have bananas on my RT1000i's but have bi-wired my CS400i with just bare wire. My f/x300i cannot have banana plugs because they would make the speaker angle up towards the ceiling and thus create a horrible sound.

My opinion on speaker cable is this: If you have high-end equipment than spring for the better speaker cables. If you have moderate HT, than just go with 12 ga. speaker cable from Home Depot or from a local retailer. Not BEST BUY, Monster cable is overpriced, and not worth the money. 12 ga that is OFC is good enough.

BTW, you know that speaker cable is only a copper conductor insulated by plastic right?

johnnyamerika

I'm part of that group of thought too...MC and other audiophile cables don't really appeal to me...I've ran them before and used generic, oxygen-free copper and found no difference. If you were to go with expensive cable, I would suggest looking at these right here:

http://www.audioquest.com/home.html

They seem mighty interesting, though I definately don't have these in my budget. They also have a really interesting article posted, just click on cable theory, the top option.

dbournival

Thanks for all the replys, I sure got some people going. The MC 14 AWG was not as expensive as I thought. I checked my old receipt. The price I was thinking of was for 2 spools (one two, one four wire) when I had my house done last year. Two of the runs will be close to 80 feet (in wall) so I guess I should go for the 12 AWG.

rodneyat

I just ordered some 14g Custom Install Monster Cable myself and the price was not too bad at all. It was not a lot more expensive than generic 14g was going to be from the local electronics supply store. I ordered 50' of 4 conductor and 200' of 2 conductor and it was a little over $100. That is not too bad as far as I am concerned.
I would agree on the post that you buy wire the matches the level of speakers that you have. If you have $15K tied up on your speakers, then $800 - $1k for wire is not a real big deal. If you have $1800 tied up on speaker then $150 - $200 on wire is probably about right. You have to realize that there is always going to be a weak link in the system somewhere. If you spend $200 on a single set of wires for a single $500 speaker connected to a $1000 receiver, you are throwing your money away. You are going to loose all that you have gained as soon as you connect that wire to the speaker and the receiver. The level of componentry on those products is not going to be up to the wire and you will end up at your least common denominator which would be your speaker binding posts or the connectors on your receiver.

juice21

Originally posted by Aaron

I disagree with that. So you're saying that if you switched from some cheap 14AWG to some 12AWG, it would make more of a difference than if you switch to a quality cable like AudioQuest of the same gauge? I think not.

Aaron

aaron, you are right, i shouldn't have generalized like that. if you are willing to fork out some $$$ for cables, you are going to hear a difference. i was commenting on budget cables (anything MC or below). price seemed to be an issue, so i didn't think audioquest, MIT, kimber Kable were in the scope here. point taken though...

joe logston

if you are going to put it in the walls i would go with the 12 awg wire just for insurances, and bare wire, if you want to be safe soder on good spades (gold) with silver soder crimp them frist then soder. you can get fairly good spads at radio shack 12 to 10 awg i thank its 8 for $4.99

joe logston

on connenctions to all make sure that you tighten your binden post real good i bet that most of you have lose wires on your bindin post, take off your binding post plates and tighten the nuts in the back to. then listen to your speakers hear the differance when you have a lose connection you lose some of the highs and lows it be like a filter that rolls them off.

dean/klipschead

Well, you put something 'extra' in the signal path which should only cause degradation.

You can't make the original signal better - you can only make it worse.

Bare wire is best.

joe logston

i know that bare wire is best but there is a danger of shorting out so for safety reasaons it would be better to soder on spades but you are right but it would take yrs. to corroad to the piont where it would change the sound.