I purchased the solder type banana plugs from MonoPrice.com. Is there any benefit to soldering banana plugs? Ironically enough, the only instructions they give on their website is how to connect "solder type" banana plugs without soldering.

Thanks

Well, if you solder well, you can be sure of a good connection. If you don't, it's probably not a good thing.

I have the same banana plugs, they are actually very popular as a screw on type...thats the only way I have been using them, put the wire through, bend a bit over the edge, screw on the top...

Only attempt to solder them if you have a soldering gun. with 100 watts or more of power. Otherwise your just going to be wasting your time. If you plan on keeping the plugs on that wire forever. I personally would solder them.

Why?

With anything less trying to solder with that much mass it will never get hot enough to flow the solder. Except right where you have the tip of your iron.

Sorta like sweating copper pipes with a bic lighter.....

It does slowly heat up the wire enough to smoke and melt back the insulation, though... making it frustrating AND stinky.

Bren R.

I asked because I've never had a problem with my 40W iron.

Any ideas where I can find instructions on how to solder banana plugs? I looked on MonoPrice.com but couldn't find anything.

I have a 35W electric iron in my "electrical" tool box, which is the wrong heat range for nearly everything... too hot for miniature electronics, too cold for big gauge work.

Also a 15W for the small stuff, and a handheld butane heated soldering tip for the big stuff - but these are always at home.

Bren R.

Wheelz,

Have you considered getting the non-solder plugs from Axiom? They are really very good. I ended up buying four myself.

I concur. I have them too and they're very nice.

Or just use bare wire, nothing wrong with that.

No, nothing wrong with bare wire. With all the speaker shoot-outs though, it's nice to have the bananas.

My comment was made for Wheelz, he doesn't have to have bananna pugs to have a good connection. Heck Tex I gave up on you a long time ago

Yes, and the connection is probably even better with just bare wires.

Don't give up on me yet. Remember that I have decades to go to accumulate your wisdom .

Why not just use bare wire connection?

I love the edit feature, ha ha lol

Or why not

wheelz, as Tex eluded, bananas are nice if you move the speakers around alot or you do speaker comparisons, much easier with the plug and play.

I too have the Axiom bananas and they are just like their binding posts where the speaker wire connects to them, very solid and clean connections.

Bare wire is probably the best connection as you have eliminated any possibility of connection problems except for that one connection itself.

I'll be, I think Tex is calling me an old man

I think you're jumping to conclusions. Maybe I'm just a little slower than you and need more time. After all, I had to draw myself a block diagram to figure out why multi-amping wouldn't work .

Darn it all. I have read that a bare wire connection is appropriate and preferred if you're not moving your speakers around, constantly unplugging them. I just liked the cleaner look mainly for plugging into wall plates. Unfortunately, I've already purchased and received the banana plugs from MonoPrice.com. Just waiting on my wall plate which was purchased on eBay. Seeing that I don't move my speakers around, I will go with bare wire on all my speakers. Too bad I just burnt some cash on the banana plugs.

Wheelz,

don't worry about the Banana plugs, I am using the same ones, and I have not every had a problem with the connection, crisp and clean.

Wheelz,

The banana plugs won't affect the perceived quality of the sound. Go ahead and use them.

I tried soldering banana plugs a few weeks ago Debbie was so appalled with my job that she stripped the wires down again and redid it. For what it's worth, I think should just send them to Debbie! {giggles}

Talking about Debbie, I saw photos of her building EP600 drivers. Doing that all day would drive me nuts . I'm sure we'd all like to see more pictures of Axiom staff and the facilities. I'd like to see one of Tom blowing something up .

I'm assuming that the easiest way to connect to the back of the wall plate is via bare wire? I can't see how there would be enough room for the wires and banana plugs inside a electrical box.

Yes, bare wire is the way to go.

And there is certainly no need to be able to plug and unplug from the inside of the box anyway, that would just be a waste of a banana plug.

I went the plug route since i had a tendency to swap out speakers and play with things at least once a month.

Soldering required the use of a gun version as Haoleb said. I burned the outer jacket with feeble 40W pencil style and nothing was near melting.
I agree with Bren.
It does stink.

Maybe your 40W iron isn't as efficient as mine . I don't know what to say.

We all know your watts are more efficient than anyone else's, Mojo!

You mean you know about my half watt soldering iron ?

Ive found that I use my soldering gun much more than my iron for most jobs. Heats up nearly instantly and has plenty of power for nearly any job. The one i have is just the 30 dollar weller 100/140 watt that is sold mostly everywhere. If you do any amount of soldering reccomend you pick on up! Dont know why i waited so long before i bought one.

When attaching the banana plugs without soldering them, is there a better way contrary to the following which is recommended at monoprice (fraying the wire)? It seems tedious.

Banana plug intall guide

I just hooked all my cable up to bananna plugs from blue jeans cable. Same instructions there. I used little plyers to spread the wire and and bend it back as shown.

I felt like it made a good connection that way.

Tedious? How many are planning on doing? Sheesh! Just do it and get it over with!

Yeah, that's how those plugs work. If you don't like 'em, send 'em back and get some of the ones with little set screws.

That is a pain. The Axiom banana plugs works and looks like just like their speaker terminals, just slide the wire through the hole and tighten, couldn't be easier.

That's how the ones I used for my truck are. There're not hard to do, they just take a little time.

I've not found it as tedious as soldering. In fact, I feel it's the easiest way to attach a wire to a banana plug. Haven't tried the Axiom plugs. They sound even easier, and the quality, I've no doubt, is superb. But, they are more expensive.

The Axiom plugs also come with an absolutely awesome user manual that no banana plug user could live without. That manual is destined to become a classic. Axiom must have used a technical writer that had OCD .