Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Tool-less Banana Plugs (in Canada)

Alright so my Axiom's are on order, wires and interconnects will be order in a few weeks I'm assuming, I need banana plugs.

Someone over at AVSForum recommended Monster Audio's Quick Lock's as they just screw down. I have low vision so I'd prefer not to solder (as I can't) and want something that goes on by hand.

I figured this'd be the place to ask since you all own speakers like mine

- D

If those are anything like the ones from BlueJeans cable (great company, no offense meant...), then you may want to consider some that have small screws to hold the cable instead. I like the ones I got from Home Depot. Two teeny screws hold the cable into the plug.

As a side question, why do you need banana plugs? I use them only on my receiver side, because the H/K binding posts are a pain to use with bare wire.

something like this would work fine.

you can also get the individual kind like this

either one would work great. these are no sodering, just stick the wire in the hole, and clamp the screw down on the wire.. easy-peasy japanesey..

but check your local mom and pops electronics store.. they will usually have them in stock, and you ainbt gotta worry about buying them on line.

and dont get yourself pulled into the monster cable hype.. that stuff is too expensive, and way over-rated.

bigjohn

Screws I can handle, not much more then that though. Also with my vision, a lot of stuff is done by touch, so trying to put bare wire into a hole vs. a solid piece of metal works much better for me.

- D

also I just looked into the monster one's and they're really expensive, I don't think I need to spend that much do I...

- D

Don't know your budget (price shown is for a pack of two plugs), but I use and really like, these.

They're real easy to use. No soldering, no screwdrivers.

You can see a seam on the body of the plug. It just screws apart at that seam. You stick the end of your wire up through the center hole in the bottom half, fan out the individual strands of the wire and fold them down over the top edge of the bottom half. Then just screw the top half back on, and plug 'em in.

Is there a trick to those? Because (as I've posted about a thousand times now) I'm having a hard time getting a secure connection with them.

Hello Daph

You can pick up banana plugs at Radio Shack - just unscrew them, slip the wire through the female base part, fan the ends of the wire, place the banana part over the base and fanned wire, screw the banana on, and voila, banana plug terminated wire.

Ken, A secure connection between plug and speaker post, or a secure connection between the two parts of the plug? If it's the latter, it all depends on the gauge of your wire, and how you fan out the individual little wires. The thinner your wire, the more you have to kinda group the individual wires together to make a slightly thicker group for the two parts of the plug to grab. The thicker your wire, the more you have to fan out the individual wires to get the two halves to fit together well. Experiment a little.

here's how my 12 gauge looks.

It's between the two parts of the plug. I'm trying to put a pair of 14 gauge wires into them, and I think I know what my issue is: the insulation of the pair of 14 gauge wires doesn't fit in the little hole, so I need to strip slighly longer pieces. I see how it would be fine with a single cable. Not the right tool for the job, I guess. I'll just shut up about how they don't work, then!

No insulation should go into the little hole. It's not supposed to.

Strip enough of the insulation so that only bare wire goes into the hole; about 1/2 inch, or so, of bare wire. insert the wire until the insulation won't let you go any farther. you should have about 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch, or so, of bare wire to bend back over the edge. Screw the top half on. Viola!

I'll repeat. No insulation goes into the hole. It just won't fit, and isn't supposed to. But, don't leave any bare wire showing at the bottom of the plug. You want the insulation up snug to the bottom of the hole.

Don't give up

Something funky with photobucket. It won't let my pictures show, and I can't get into my page. DRAT!

What the hell is that "easy peasey japanesey" thing? That doesn't sound too good.

Ajax you've sold me, I'm going to pick a bunch of those up

- D

OH Jeez. Don't pay any attention to what I say. I'm just some old guy, whose brain is giving out. (What's that they say about a picture being worth a thousand words?)

In reply to:

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What the hell is that "easy peasey, japanesey" thing? That doesn't sound too good

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its a line the librarian uses in 'shawshank redemption'. its just a stupid way of saying something is easy.

bigjohn

The other plugs I have have a collar around the base before the little hole, so if the insulation between the two is uneven, it's hidden. That's all I really meant. It's somewhat difficult with two leads to get the insulation matched and get them both to stick in the center hole. I'll give it another shot tomorrow night. No time tonight; it's the M22/M50 shootout! (again, or something...)