Speaker cables or binding posts

[jarrett baines]

Hello all. I've been putting my new system together for a few months and I've finally finished, my oppo 103 comes tommorow. I hope. It was fun doing the shopping and auditioning. Honestly everything I heard, I would be perfectly happy with any of the. But after a month with my Paradigm's, I'm very sure I got the right ones because my ears are in bliss. What I went with, and please be gentle on me this is my first build for more than 2500 can. Dollars.
Paradigm 75f's fronts
Paradigm 45c center
Paradigm Millenia ones rears
Paradigm Millenia sub (purely out of room size. But I'm very happy with this killer sub.)
And my brains, Marantz sr6010.
Like I said I know very little other than what I learned from all of you and Victor and Hugo of course. Thanks to those that helped on my other thread.
Just a quick question for anyone. My cables (Phantom terminated with banana's) I really like them, they look great and only 40 a string with the ends of your choice. However they are shockingly loose and can get pulled out early. Is this the cable or are they all the same size? Or is it possibly my binding post? I have some monster banana clips and they have a tighter fit. So that may answer my question. Still, any thoughts?
Any ways thanks for your time and Cheers.

 

[lovinthehd]

Banana plugs don't have a particular standard to adhere to. Might try some with a locking tip for a tighter fit on the loose connections. Easier to change banana than binding post....or just use a bare wire end (best anyways) or spade unless you plan to change the connection frequently.

 

[Latent]

Try unscrewing the binding posts all the way and then inserting the banana plugs into the round hole in the middle of the shaft and tighten down the binding posts. This may not work on all speakers as binding posts vary a little and it normally doesn't work on the back of AVR'S.

You can get locking banana plugs for a bit more but they sometimes have compatibility problems as well. If you are not changing often then bare wire does work ok as well.

 

[KenM10759]

I had the same problem with Monoprice banana plugs being very loose in my R500 speakers, though they were fine in the back of the NAD receiver. I switched to the locking banana plugs from Blue Jeans Cable and THAT is a solid connection!

Later on I brought my gauge pin set over from my machine shop and measured the holes in the speaker binding posts to range between 0.154" (3.91mm) and 0.159" (4.04mm.) This isn't a huge range but does explain why the same plug would be looser in one post than the other. The binding post holes on the NAD receiver were all at 3.9 mm.

Because the Blue Jeans Cable locking banana plugs use a mechanism to spread the end of the tip, it easily compensates for variation in the mating hole and holds rock solid. I'm going ahead to make a few cables for friends and family using the experience I've gained in making mine several times now, with incremental improvements to arrive at what I have now. My son will get the first, though opted for the "carbon fibre look" sheathing over my green. I'm going to try the deep purple too, looks classy.

I highly recommend Blue Jeans Cable as a source for both finished cables and the components, though I don't think they (yet) offer the cable pants and sheathing that I prefer.

 

[j_garcia]

You can "adjust" most bananas with a small knife or screwdriver. They are tension based and the spring action can get compressed, so you just gently pull them out to get them to fit better. This is the reason I don't use regular bananas anymore. I use BFA style and locking ones like above.

 

[KenM10759]

I had tested a set of Nordost speaker wires that have those serrated split style banana plugs and they're good, certainly better than the Monoprice ones I had. However, the difference in connection security between either of those and the locking ones from Blue Jeans Cable is profound.

 

[j_garcia]

My binding posts in my older GRs are split, so the locking ones would expand and actually break off inside. The nice thing about the BFAs is you can always expand or shrink them to accommodate any post. My Carnegies also use an odd type of connector - Electra Tube. I didn't want to rebuild my cables using their pins, but the BFAs fit perfectly because they compress. I've had them pull out of other speakers, but then you just jam a pencil in there and expand them until they fit

http://www.electracable.com/tubeconnector.htm

One time I had a speaker cable get pulled out of my amp and I spent HOURS troubleshooting and pulling gear out only to find that out. Ever since then I've always used locking connectors on the amp side.

 

[KenM10759]

Never have heard of the BJC locking plugs fail in any way shape or form.

 

[j_garcia]

I'll snap a pic of the binding post inside and it will make sense why mine broke. They're not standard binding posts.