Help with sound quality

[noxangelus]

Hi, I have a pair of wharfedale 10.6 floor standing speakers and a polk PSW125 sub connected with gold plated banana plugs expect for sub which is a normal input plug. They are connected to DENON AVR-1713 receiver.

Now my problem I'm having is a loss of crisp sound when my sound system has been sitting awhile (a few weeks) the music just has a painful loudness that makes you want to turn it down.
If I go and take out all the plugs making sure they are tight and plug them back in and play some of the same music the quality is much more crisp sounding than what it was before, and makes me want to turn it up and no longer sounds 'loud' but sounds clear.

I really could use some light on this, I don't know why this is happening?

 

[tyhjaarpa]

By your description it sounds like you have a problem with the cables/banana plugs/connectors. Do you have any other cables you could try with? I myself trust on bare wire connection and I have never had problem like you are describing, cheap and easy way to connect your speakers!

 

[Swerd]

It does seem like your banana plugs might be coming loose from speaker vibrations. Banana plugs and banana jacks can vary slightly in their size. In the past, I had banana plugs with springs on the plug that looked like the photo below. With time, they flattened and easily came loose.

I replaced them with plugs with springs like these.

If you want to buy new banana plugs, I've had good results with these made by Sewell.

If two plugs are joined together (see photo below), they come loose less often than the single plug types. But before you get these, make sure they actually fit the back of your receiver. I believe the standard separation distance with these is ¾", but AV receivers vary in how they layout their speaker jacks.

 

[TheWarrior]

Also, how do you have your AVR set up to drive those speakers? Small, Large? Do you have the volume set high on the subwoofer?

 

[markw]

If your banana plugs look like those first ones Swerd pictured, you can expand them if you CAREFULLY insert the point of a sharp knife into them and slightly turning it, if needed. ...works for me.

 

[KEW]

This is unlikely, but there probably are some POS knock-off banana plugs out there, so inspect them carefully for any type of corrosion.
It is possible that unplugging and re-plugging is rubbing off any corrosion between the metals and you get a fresh surface contact.
Most are gold plated and if they truly are, you should not have any corrosion.