Planar Speaker Asylum

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Planar Speaker Asylum

"My bananas are rounded on the tip" ...

120.149.146.35

In Reply to: RE: 3.5R Drop Out Update posted by HiOnFi on March 20, 2014 at 10:03:02

You must be using "standard" banana plugs which have 4 - 6 spring-loaded splines which contact the socket surface?

Get yourself these "springy cylinder" banana plugs; they make much better contact with the barrel and will solve your problem:

These are Audioquest; RS Components also sell them in packets of 5, with a red or black coloured "handle".

Regards,

Andy

Follow Ups:

RE: "My bananas are rounded on the tip" ... - Norman M 10:28:10 03/22/14 (2)
Blue Jeans Cable appears to have a 'locking' banana plug which might be useful (and safer)?

http://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/speaker/index.htm?PHPSESSID=fcf3a493c642973a4819eecfef282bc3

Perhaps it only appears that way, but if these "spring cylinder" plugs were inserted and pulled many times, the threads within the barrels (which accept the set screws) might get damaged. I accomplished that by over many years merely tight fastening the set screws onto Magnepan's solid steel 'U' shaped jumper. Unless the listener needs to quickly and repeatedly insert and remove such thingies, fastening down on bare wire seems to be best idea, particularly if thick gauge speaker cable is used. However, a sizable number of inmates connect up very thin speaker wire, so that fastening down on those might be problematic. Perhaps then the best recourse is to solder that wire into a banana? If a banana will be fastened using the set screws, I feel any banana will serve the purpose. (Yet, I've widened the spaces between the spines of standard bananas using the tip of a jeweler's type screw driver, whenever I felt the need for more traction, also which can be repeated many times.)
- "widened the spaces between the spines of standard bananas" ... - andyr 11:06:04 03/22/14 (1)
  Granted - but calculate the areas of contact with a cylinder vs. 4 spines.
  
  Andy
  - RE: "widened the spaces between the spines of standard bananas" ... - Norman M 11:46:01 03/22/14 (0)
    Also granted, but for those of us (e.g., me) who use fuses, and their surface areas? :-))
RE: "My bananas are rounded on the tip" ... - HiOnFi 16:24:04 03/21/14 (0)
Many years ago I had Nordost Blue Heavens with similar banana. Somehow one of them broke off

but worth revisiting

Thanks
RE: "My bananas are rounded on the tip" ... - HiOnFi 15:10:40 03/21/14 (1)
Mine have 4 grooves /spines

On the recommendation of Paul (Clear Day Cables) I looked closely and noticed they were all flattened.

Sometimes the contact was minimal causing shorting, or times n contact at all

I puffed them up with a pocket knife and reinserted.

So far so good.
- "I looked closely and noticed they were all flattened" ... - andyr 15:20:39 03/21/14 (0)
  Correct - it's an inadequate design for a banana plug.
  
  The Multi-Contact design (used/copied by Audioquest) delivers better contact.
  
  Andy

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