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Finally got tired of the loose/bent banana plugs on my Eichmann speaker cables and did some chopping. I have always really enjoyed the sound from these cables but was never quite happy with their banana plugs. Upon opening, found two 14 gauge solid copper for the neg and two 20 gauge for the pos (see pics). Went ahead and attached some Audioquest copper bananas that I really like because of their solid connection. But, while the AQ bananas are great for stranded, I think I might do better for the solid wire (especially the two twisted 14 gauge which don't quite fit). I was thinking of a bit of solder to meld the two solid wires together but that would make it even more difficult to fit the 14 gauge into the back of the AQ bananas.
I do really like the solid connection of the AQ and would like to stick with bananas but if a spade connection will work better I guess I am open to that. Any other banana plugs I might look at using? Thanks!
Follow Ups:
Wrap one of the 14 AWG wires around the other, leaving enough length of the first wire (that's not wrapped) to be able to fit into the BFA connector, all by itself -- solder the wrapped wire onto the first wire making sure not to allow any stray solder to run onto the section of bare wire that will be placed inside the connector. You may wish to slightly flatten the bare 14 AWG wire where the set-screws make contact with it in order to obtain a firmer grip.
Bare, treated wire if all possible puts less between you and the music.
between different termination methods. I will try bare and listen, who knows, I may like it better this time. The issue is mainly one of convenience for me. I am not lazy, but I get so little time to listen these days that bananas just work best for me.
I get the "bare" part of course, but what do you mean by "treated wire"?
Cleaned: 99% alcohol - 91% is OK
Treated: Stabilant 22 Contact enhancerRead more @ stabilant22.com
App notes are very interesting.
BTW: According to the manufacturer Sumiko marketed a contact enhancer named "Tweak" that was actually a form of Stabilant 22 -- until the manufacturer put a stop to it.
I've been using this stuff for over 10 years and it works great.
Fixed many household items with it also.
Edits: 02/06/12
Maybe it's just me, but I'm not getting what the convenience of bananas have to do with your limited time of listening.
Do you have to connect and disconnect the speakers each time?
And, like I said, the wire jumpers on my Snells kind of mess with spade or bare wire connection.
and I do like the crimp sleeve idea but I don't think it will help me fit the two 14 ga wires into the back of the AQ bananas. The Eichmann bananas had the two wires soldered on to a 'plate' (for lack of better term) that was connected to the banana end. The soldered plate was a great connection but after that the banana end was just weak and flimsy. I guess I am hoping to find a strong banana like the AQ that is a solder type instead of a set screw type. I am searching but so far no luck.
I would rather have the convenience of bananas but am not totally opposed to spades. The biggest problem is the solid copper wire jumpers I have on the back of my Snells pretty much prevent the use of spades. I would have to find some type of flat jumpers to accommodate the spades. I guess I could run spades on the speaker cables and use bananas for the jumpers? Hmmmm...
These BFA banana plugs fit from 14-8awg wire so these should work for you and are really affordable.
I do it all in the name of music!!!
but not sure if they will fit 2 14 ga wires into one plug. But, for the price I might just buy 'em and mess around. Any reason you know of that I can't put one on each of the four wires and effectively make it a shotgun bi-wire setup? My Snells are set up for bi-wire so I don't see any problem there. But, my Viennas are not so I run into a little problem when switching out speakers.
Those will easily fit two 14awg conductors as that is only 11awg and the plugs will accept up to 8awg. So basically these plugs will accept four 14awg conductors as that equals 8awg.
I do it all in the name of music!!!
Banana connectors IMHO are not a high-end solution to speaker cable termination.
Try some WBT crimp sleeves for your set screw type terminations...should make the job much easier to terminate.
I do it all in the name of music!!!
I used to like bananas from Nordost but now prefer spades.
Much better contact with a more secure connection.
They sound better IMO too.
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
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