GLS Audio Plugs?

[mikerader]

Does anyone know anything about the gold plated RCA plugs from Orange County Speaker? They are sold as "GLS Audio" plugs. I do not like to buy anything I can not find info on. However, they look decent for the price.

Any other suggestions for audio plugs under $4 each? I will be buying at least 30.

Thanks in Advance,

 

[Tallcane]

I dont know whether they are considered great quality wise but I can tell you I bought some from Orange County who had great customer service and the plugs were easy to use and looked great.

 

[mikerader]

I am not someone who believes spending $10 -$20 dollars for a plug make much sense. But I do want gold plating and a descent quality cable for my new system.

Regards,

 

[mnnc]

I purchased some GLS banana plugs and allthough they came with a 'made in China' sticker they are pretty darn nice for the money based on quite a bit of research I did concerning price/quality ratio. I got mine from O Co. Spkr via ebay.

 

[claudermilk]

I'm quite happy with mine. I got the locking banana plugs for my speaker cables & they look and work great. I can't see spending more than what these cost for the "brand name" connectors out there.

OC Speaker has great customer service. They even didn't mind me showing up to do a will-call pickup (They are a real B&M business).

 

[ducker]

I have the cheaper of the 2 plugs they offer... I think it was around 1.75 a plug or so. (I bought around 24 of them or so)

they work just fine. Just need a little flat head screw driver. the size that one would use for eye glasses.

I did buy a few too many. I found that I like to use the plugs on the back of the receiver, and on a wall plate. But for connections going in to the back of speakers, I'll just use straight wire.

 

[awesomebase]

Good stuff

I got all 60 of my GLS locking gold-plated locking banana plugs from them and they work fine! They are definitely well built and I think they are worth the money. I was considering the RCA ends as well, but opted not to do that since I don't want to spend time soldering the connections...

 

[mikerader]

Any recommendations on cable for the RCA plugs?

I have had trouble finding audio cable.

 

[mawst95]

Hmmm. There's another thread on this forum saying they had mixed results with these plugs. Inconsistent quality. Do a search...

 

[mnnc]

Any recommendations on cable for the RCA plugs?

I have had trouble finding audio cable.

Try bluejeanscable dot com. They are super quality and very reasonably priced. You might just want to buy the cables complete or I am pretty sure you can order raw coax etc...check'em out. Their component cables were rated best by reviwer on this site.

 

[3beanlimit]

Those self locking banana plugs are nice! If you look on Ebay, there are others that look exactly the same. Probably made by the same outfit..

My only complaint is how they compress the wire. I'd like to have seen a wider screw..

 

[9f9c7z]

Those certainly are nice looking RCA plugs. Since I can’t see any RCA plugs, they are on the back of all my goodies, my primary concern is strain relief where the cable (wire/conductor) exits the connector. It looks like those connectors may latch onto the wire’s insulator. If so, you’re ok. If the wire hangs from the solder joints, I’d pass on the connectors.

Personally, I prefer crimp connectors over soldered connectors. Their statement that soldering makes the best connection is not true. ADC makes quality connectors (stainless steel barrel, gold pin) at about $2.55/each that work fantastic with coax. You do need a crimper, tho.

Canare is another quality connector at the same price, but to get a proper crimp on Canare product you may need to buy their (over-priced) special-size crimping tool. Some people have been successful crimping Canare connectors using generic tools. Other folks have said they couldn’t get the crimps quite right. I said why is this even an issue? and use ADC connectors instead.

EDIT: I just looked at the GLS locking banana plugs. I’ll bet dollars to dimes they are exactly the same plug (except for the GLS decal) as the gold plated locking banana plugs sold by Blue Jeans Cable for ½ the price.

 

[claudermilk]

If you mean the bananas they have pictured on their speaker cable page, no, they aren't the same. I'll bet the ebay ones are being sold by OC Speaker (that's where I first ran across them). The whole set I got--enough for a 5.0 speaker setup--are well-constructed. I'm using the Canare 4S11 cable & it has no problem making connection with the set screws; for smaller cable you can just make a longer strips and fold the wire over to bulk it up.

The cables Blue Jeans makes witrh RCA are Canare plugs & they do crimp onto the jacket; they are excellent cables and one of the better deals available. I've got their interconnects throughout & couldn't be happier.

If you want to DIY your cables, check out Westlake Electronics. They have the same raw cable as Blue Jeans for about 30%-40% less.

 

[awesomebase]

Plugs

Yes, I'm pretty sure that the Blue Jeans Cable locking banana plugs are almost the same as the ones from Orange County. However, they are also the same price ($5.25/pair at BJC vs. ~ $5/pair at Orange County). It is a little cheaper to buy in bulk from Orange County, but, in the end, I don't think that either has a price/performance advantage, at least not one that is significant in any way. They are solid devices and work well. As mentioned with the RCA plugs, though soldering is supposed to get you the best connection, I've seen many compression style plugs that perform well, so, I guess it all depends on what you are looking at doing and how comfortable you are with either approach. Either way, I can't think you could make a bad choice...

 

[9f9c7z]

Connectors are usually built to a spec that is used in other industrial applications. Most (all?) crimp/compression connectors are designed to crimp to the wire’s insulator to meet common spec of 50-lbs of pull. Using either Canare or ADC connectors and coax, you can literally reach up, yank on any part of the cable to disconnect the RCA jack without any fear whatsoever of causing damage to the cable. Can’t say the same for your eyeball. The heavyweight connector (ADC or Canare) at the other end of the cable can whip back, becoming a projectile on a trajectory to your face. (Humm…does he speak from experience?)

As I mentioned, you definitely don’t want the soldered joints to also carry the burden of securing against wire strain. Soldering should be only for electrical continuity. See the Neutrik XLR connectors. You solder the wires inside, then the base screws onto and compresses the wire’s insulation to protect the solder joints from strain. If those GLS connectors work that way, you’re good to go. If the base just screws over the solder connection without crimping the insulation, I would pass on those RCA connectors.

Claudermilk – I compared the pix of the locking banana plug on that website with some I bought from Blue Jeans Cable. They look exactly identical, inside and out, except for the GLS decal.

Locking ban plugs from BJC - $5.25/pr.
Locking ban plugs from OCS - $11.50/pr

NOTE: The banana plugs you buy loose from BJC are not the same as the plugs they have pictured for use on their pre-assembled speaker cables. BJC doesn’t have any pix of the loose banana plugs on their website for you to compare.

Blue Jeans Cable – Seattle, WA 98119
Westlake Elect – Seattle, WA 98109

Just for kicks I stuck their addresses in MapQuest/driving directions. They’re 2.3miles apart.