Need some help on ordering the banana plug adapters from Axiom. I want to order some new speaker cable from Axiom and just not sure what type of banana plug adapter I need.
They offer single spring and dual spring.

I have a Denon 3808CI and checked my manual but don't see anything specific to the banana plug.

Would anyone know off hand which to order?

Either would work.
The springs are just the curved metal straps running along the lenth of the plug that you push into the jacks.

I suppose dual springs should offer a stronger hold in thoery. Although I had some dual spring (Radio Shack generic) banana plugs that continusously fell out of my speakers compared to some single spring plugs I purchased elsewhere. It's all in how well they are made.

I can't look it up at the moment, but my assumption is that he means dual v. Single banana plugs in general.

Your Axioms can take dual banana plugs, but personally I went with single banana plugs on the receiver end of my 3808 just because they take up less space.

Thanks Mark, I spoke to Brent and ended up with 3 prs of single and 3prs of dual. Single for the receiver end and dual for the speaker end.

Sorry, When I read the word spring twice in "They offer single spring and dual spring." I thought you were referring to the number of springs on the lead.

Luckily Mark is ever-diligent.

which is better, Banana plugs or Axiom cable without?

Hi,

There's no "better". Banana plugs are simply more convenient, easier to connect and disconnect than bare cable, and it's less likely that a strand of the cable would fray and short the connection between the speaker connections.

Both methods use a contact connection, which is entirely adequate to transfer the high-level signal from the cable to the speaker posts.

Regards,
Alan

And you can get banana plugs in which no soldering is required such that you insert the bare wire into the plug, screw it down tight, then jack the plug into the speaker.
Still all the same idea, but with the easy disconnect feature.

For years i used banana plugs and was doing alot of switching and moving of components for testing, but the past couple of years i've slowed down and haven't moved things around in some time. I'm not certain which speaker sets still have banana plugs in use now.

Come to think of it, we haven't had any in house demos in awhile. We used to get at least one a year or so. Nothing now for one or two years.
That damn economy.

Certainly banana plugs are the most convenient, however, I would caution that if your preference is a heavier duty thicker speaker cable, because of the cables extra weight and stiffness, it can actually break off the connection quite easily in which case it would be better to go to a direct wire or spade connection.

What about soldering? I've heard some say its absolutely required. I've never, although I have considered using a dielectric grease at each end.

There was a time in the early 1970s when the only banana plugs I could find in the Toronto area were the solderable type (I still have some speaker cables with those plugs attached.)

It certainly isn't necessary, given the significant voltage/amperage of high-level audio signals from a power amplifier. If you were talking about the tiny output from a moving-magnet or moving-coil phono cartridge (a few millivolts--thousandths of a volt), then losses might be significant.

I haven't bothered soldering banana plugs for years. You could take this to ludicrous extremes, the way some tweaks are prone to do--and solder the entire signal path from the amplifier output terminals to the crossover board inside the speaker, but there's no significant--or audible--loss with high-level signals and typical speaker posts and banana plugs so don't worry about it.

- Alan

Should you add solder to bare wire before inserting them?

no

I wondered.
I hadn't heard of anyone doing it before until about two months ago when out of the blue two different people told me they had done it and both said they noticed better SQ.

one was my mom.....I'll never live this post down...

These Radio Shack banana plugs let the wire hang down to reduce that problem. I also like that I know that when the wire exits the bottom, they are oriented with the proper polarity, so I don't have to squint to try to determine "red or black". The knurled knob in the back of them tightens down on the wire. They also accept the 12 gauge wire I'm using.

I love banana plug discussions.

Nice plugs, Mark! And I agree that it's always important to let your wire hang down. . .

--Alan

At least in public.
What makes your wire point up is no one else's business.

Ha, ha! My first LOL of the day. . .

-Alan

all this reminds me of the song i hear on Galaxie sometimes:
The Big Bamboo, by Mighty Sparrow.