spades,bananas, or ? whats your preference?

Cogito

Pins on the amp end and spades on the speaker end.

ivansfo

cstmar01 wrote: »

Just curious as to what people on the forum like in terms of connections. I'm currently using bananas but picked up some MIT cables that the ends can be switched out so curious as to if people feel spades are a better connection.

Count me as one who feels spades provide a better connection. When screwed down at the terminals, the spades provide a very solid connection. I think this connection is better than the typical spring loaded type banana plug where only a fraction of the connector actually makes contact to the terminal.

So if you don't move around your equipment much, go with spades. But if you are swapping around gear all the time like much of the folks here do, bananas would be more handy.

Pycroft

I use bananas for everything, and have a quick question...do they make different size banana plugs for different gauge wire? I got some think 12 gague wire and the wire doesn't fit well into it at all. Thanks.

sTiLlLeArNiNg

ivansfo wrote: »

Count me as one who feels spades provide a better connection. When screwed down at the terminals, the spades provide a very solid connection.

For some reason i always had issues with my binding "nut's" coming loose after a few day's so that was what really pushed the favour on the side of nanner's

Of all the type of banana plug's i like these style the best, minus the threaded/crimp shoulder/bolster. In the solder only style these rock IMHO!

dorokusai

There's not a human on the planet that could tell the sonic difference between spades or bananas...choose one and move on with your life.

I prefer bananas because I move alot of loudspeakers thru my home. It's simple plug and play installation.

skrol

In my comparison of the 3 types of 'naners (Nakamichi labeled), I liked the above pictured "saw" type best because it fit the most snug in my speakers and my receivers. This may depend on your specific binding posts. The down side is that they won't accept as heavy a gauge wire as the other types "standard" and "stick". Of those types I liked the "stick" type the least because they fit rather loose due to the lower spring tension. The "standard" type were good all around.

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=82272

When I was using bare copper wire I would loosen and re-tighten once or twice a year to scrub any oxidation away and ensure that they are tight.

Krazyz1

24kt. gold plated from partsexpress.com. I believe will handle up to 10ga. if using smaller wire , strip it long and fold over till plenty fill in hole then screw the color coded posts wich are stackable if needed. Bodies come in black and red. The only thing so far I've seen they didn't fit ( were half a hole off on spacing ) was on my newly aquired ROTEL RB-1090. DAM it sounds good. I am a CARVER fan at heart , and jerked my 2 M-400's.I listened to 5 different CD's and atleast 2 songs per CD I could hear instruments I didn't hear on the Carvers.So very HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!

MLZ

Bananas at the amp, spades at the speakers

bigaudiofanatic

Right now raw wire but thinking with a elite on the way to upgrade to bananas.

Big Dawg

I have both spades and banana to use on my MITs, but I ended up just using the bananas.

kawizx9r

Stated earlier, naners on all ends minus spades on one end of the maggie mates.

Just got these locking plugs, and they stay in place much better than the MIT naners and the BJC naners.

Here's a pic, only gripe is that they're pretty wide.....which brings them a little close together (for my tastes but still pretty spread apart) but nothing to worry about unless we have an earthquake while listening to music lol

MANSKITO

The best would be which ever connection has the most surface area contact with the binding post.

Because this would give the most bandwidth for the electrons to travel through and because of this would offer lower
resistance and more then likely better sound. (although one could argue that uninterrupted unterminated wire would give the lowest resistance.)

I have not measured but if i had to guess i would say the bananas do.

A easy way to test this is fill a graduated cylinder with water drop the connector pieces in and which ever displaces the most water will have the most volume, which ever connector piece has more volume will most likely have the most surface area.

Not exact but its the only way I can think of to get an idea of the surface area of such a complex object.

But I don't think there will really be that much of a difference between the two in surface area contact with the binding post, you are probably best off buying the connection hard ware that has the highest degree of craftsmanship over which has slightly larger surface area.