Question about certain banana plugs

[Joseman37]

Hello there.
Can someone illustrate for me what the small piece of rubber inside this plugs are used for?

Thank you

 

[lovinthehd]

What small piece of rubber? I don't see one even using all the pics at monoprice. Altho in one of the customer reviews a mention of a piece of shrink wrap that person removed anyways.

 

[Joseman37]

What small piece of rubber? I don't see one even using all the pics at monoprice. Altho in one of the customer reviews a mention of a piece of shrink wrap that person removed anyways.

Also a pic from Amazon

 

[ryanosaur]

I took that out. you want full contact between your wire and the plug. A slight twist to the 12awg I used from Mono, and I could get the wire all the way up inside.

I think that is just there for the set screw to have something to press against so they arene't loose in the assembly for shipping. *shrugs

 

[lovinthehd]

Ah, there was one more pic at Monoprice that I missed....

@ryanosaur is it a solid plug of rubber? Or hollow for skinny cable strain relief maybe? You really had to work the 12g in rather than just back out the set screws for full access?

 

[ryanosaur]

Been awhile since I made all my cables... it was hollow, but crushed down. Only had them in my 90° ones, too, as I recall.
Didn’t strike me as anything useful.
Once I backed the set screws out, I had full access, no struggle. I think I stripped about 1.25” wire and with a gentle twist while removing the insulation, had a nice tight spiral the easily nestled in. Insulation was just below the second set screw.
If I had to guess, I’d say these could take 10awg no problem. Uncertain if the insulation would fit or not.

 

[slipperybidness]

I'm gonna wager a guess here, because I have never actually seen plugs with that rubber piece in there.

But, from what I can see and what you guys are saying.....

It may be a spacer to allow the plug to work better with smaller wire, and/or it may be there as a seal to keep atmospheric moisture away from the wire inside the plug (i.e. to avoid corrosion).

I do know that my preferred plugs have an O-ring to isolate one end from atmosphere, and I used a little drop of non-corrosive RTV on the other end.

 

[Old Onkyo]

Been awhile since I made all my cables... it was hollow, but crushed down. Only had them in my 90° ones, too, as I recall.
Didn’t strike me as anything useful.
Once I backed the set screws out, I had full access, no struggle. I think I stripped about 1.25” wire and with a gentle twist while removing the insulation, had a nice tight spiral the easily nestled in. Insulation was just below the second set screw.
If I had to guess, I’d say these could take 10awg no problem. Uncertain if the insulation would fit or not.

I have 10 awg wire from Blue Jean Cable and I could not get the wire in even with the screws removed.

 

[TLS Guy]

Also a pic from Amazon
View attachment 34980

That comes to your courtesy of the Brussels jobs worths and one of the many reasons the UK voted out.

The idea is to prevent electric shock from loudspeaker terminals. I'm not kidding. This is a DIN EEC reg, akin to the straight banana regs.

So when you receives a Quad amp, say,t hen you will find these rubber bungs in the ends of the speaker terminals, because they don't actually want you putting wires in them! The Quad ones are actually very hard to remove, so that you can actually place banana plugs in them. The EEC regs require the ends of all loudspeaker terminals to have these plugs. Not withstanding that for some designs like the ones we are talking about, they serve no purpose. But if these same plugs are also to be sold in the EU they have to have them.

Probably the only benefit to come from this epidemic will be the end of the Euro and likely the dissolution of the whole European project. They are fighting like cats and dogs among themselves at present, and its fierce. The UK are just so relived to be shot of it all before this crisis.

 

[slipperybidness]

That comes to your courtesy of the Brussels jobs worths and one of the many reasons the UK voted out.

The idea is to prevent electric shock from loudspeaker terminals. I'm not kidding. This is a DIN EEC reg, akin to the straight banana regs.

So when you receives a Quad amp, say,t hen you will find these rubber bungs in the ends of the speaker terminals, because they don't actually want you putting wires in them! The Quad ones are actually very hard to remove, so that you can actually place banana plugs in them. The EEC regs require the ends of all loudspeaker terminals to have these plugs. Not withstanding that for some designs like the ones we are talking about, they serve no purpose. But if these same plugs are also to be sold in the EU they have to have them.

Probably the only benefit to come from this epidemic will be the end of the Euro and likely the dissolution of the whole European project. They are fighting like cats and dogs among themselves at present, and its fierce. The UK are just so relived to be shot of it all before this crisis.

That makes sense, my Infinity Primus speakers came with said plastic plugs.

What I "heard", but have not fact-checked, is that the Japanese power cables have the exact same spacing as many dual 5-way binding posts, so that's why the plugs are required.

 

[lovinthehd]

That comes to your courtesy of the Brussels jobs worths and one of the many reasons the UK voted out.

The idea is to prevent electric shock from loudspeaker terminals. I'm not kidding. This is a DIN EEC reg, akin to the straight banana regs.

So when you receives a Quad amp, say,t hen you will find these rubber bungs in the ends of the speaker terminals, because they don't actually want you putting wires in them! The Quad ones are actually very hard to remove, so that you can actually place banana plugs in them. The EEC regs require the ends of all loudspeaker terminals to have these plugs. Not withstanding that for some designs like the ones we are talking about, they serve no purpose. But if these same plugs are also to be sold in the EU they have to have them.

Probably the only benefit to come from this epidemic will be the end of the Euro and likely the dissolution of the whole European project. They are fighting like cats and dogs among themselves at present, and its fierce. The UK are just so relived to be shot of it all before this crisis.

That's a stretch. One thing for an amp to have the euro safety plugs (many do, my Crowns did) but in a banana plug? Sure.....

 

[j_garcia]

I agree with it just being there to keep the set screws in place. Nothing else.