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Best banana plugs/speaker wire and sub cable?


Hydroman

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Welcome I have 2x r28f towers and r15 rear with 2x 12sw and rc62ii center speaker.

 

I'm looking for good banana plugs. Questions open or closed screw? Good brands with screw down tight I'm guess best. Brands/gage of speaker wire? Brands of sub cables/hdmi as well? Any comments will help my decision.

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Welcome I have 2x r28f towers and r15 rear with 2x 12sw and rc62ii center speaker.

 

I'm looking for good banana plugs. Questions open or closed screw? Good brands with screw down tight I'm guess best. Brands/gage of speaker wire? Brands of sub cables/hdmi as well? Any comments will help my decision.

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What Sewell calls "deadbolt" everybody else calls "locking" and yes, that method is highly favored these days.  It goes together solidly and does not loosen.  The Sewell is a little "fat" so make sure they will fit side-by-side in your AVR.

 

I also like the dual set-screw type but the Sewell is liked by many.

+++

 

I have used the Monoprice banana plugs and I do NOT like them.  They use a screw-on tip which comes loose all the time.  Their own 12 AWG wire will not fit in this banana plug, the plastic casing is too large.  You can trim it down with a knife, but you shouldn't have to.

28013.jpg

 

I do like their wire, be sure and get Oxygen Free Copper (OFC), do not get the Copper Clad Aluminum (CCA).  In other words, don't get the cheap stuff.  If the ad doesn't say anything, then it is the cheap stuff.

 

Quote

 

This speaker wire features two conductors made of high purity (greater than 99.95% pure), oxygen-free bare copper. Pure Bare Copper is a superior conductor to the copper clad aluminum (CCA) conductors used in most other inexpensive speaker wire. CCA is only about 68% as conductive as pure bare copper. This additional resistance is added to the impedance of your speakers and can negatively effect the sound.

For the wire to have no audible effect, the total wire resistance should be no more than 5% of the lowest impedance of your speakers. Even speakers rated for a nominal 8-ohms, may dip to as low as 4-ohms at some frequencies, which further reduces the total cable resistance allowed in the wire. Using Pure Bare Copper speaker wire ensures that the total load put on the amplifier remains as close as possible to the impedance curve of your speakers.

For example, a 16AWG 2-conductor Pure Bare Copper speaker wire has a total resistance of 0.803 ohms per 100 feet (both directions must be considered). By comparison, a 16AWG 2-conductor CCA speaker wire has a total resistance of 1.181 ohms per 100 feet. Assuming 4 ohms is the lowest impedance of your speakers, a speaker wire run can be no more 0.2-ohms total. 20 feet of 16AWG Pure Bare Copper would be 0.1606 ohms, well under the 0.2-ohm limit. On the other hand, 20 feet of 16AWG CCA would be 0.2362 ohms, well OVER the 0.2-ohm limit.

http://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=102&cp_id=10239&cs_id=1023902&p_id=2817&seq=1&format=2

 

 

I also like this open screw type as it will accommodate very large wire.

94372.jpg

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GLS Audio are my favorites, excellent bananas and at good prices, they have several styles to choose from my favorites are the locking style.

 

Right now there's a special free shipping and a 15% off discount with the promo code  15PC1216     good til Dec 19th

 

You will find their bananas here https://www.glsaudio.com/Banana-Plugs_c_1098.html

 

Here's a pic of mine.

image.jpg

 

image.jpg

 

A picture of my cables I made before the bananas were installed.

image.jpg

 

 

These are the locking style which expand the tip as you screw the outer case tighter locking the bananas on very tightly.

 

51DMP0X7LHL.jpg

 

BL_2.jpg

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7 hours ago, Rich_Guy said:

GLS Audio are my favorites, excellent bananas and at good prices, they have several styles to choose from my favorites are the locking style.

 

Right now there's a special free shipping and a 15% off discount with the promo code  15PC1216     good til Dec 19th

 

You will find their bananas here https://www.glsaudio.com/Banana-Plugs_c_1098.html

 

Here's a pic of mine.

image.jpg

 

image.jpg

 

A picture of my cables I made before the bananas were installed.

image.jpg

 

 

These are the locking style which expand the tip as you screw the outer case tighter locking the bananas on very tightly.

 

51DMP0X7LHL.jpg

 

BL_2.jpg

I do like the locking feature of these  GLS ones....and you can get spade connectors if you want...

Good find....I was not aware of these....That's why I love this place....You can always find a guy better S..t

 

"Honey I know what I want in my stocking this year"

 

G.E.M.

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I use bi-wired 13 gauge on my fronts and center and I use regular single wired 12 gauge for my surrounds.

 

On my fronts and center I am using Mogami 2921 which is an extremely nice studio grade wire. It's ultra flexible and just seems to bring out every detail a little cleaner, but it is not cheap either at $4.98 a foot for bulk wire.   Link for Mogami wire

Mogami W-2921.JPG

 

 

An inexpensive budget version could be Monoprice wire around $0.42  a foot for bulk wire (14 gauge)  Link for Monoprice wire

Monoprice wire.jpg

 

 

You can make your cables look nicer by using Techflex sleeving   Link for Techflex sleeving

techflex.jpg

 

 

Also use of heat shrink tubing and cable pants can make your cables have a more finished and attractive look   Link for cable pants

cable pants.jpg

 

It's not hard to make your own speaker cables and you can easily make them look very nice as well if you want.

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  • 2 weeks later...

GLS states their locking bananas "work best" with 10-18 gauge wire. If you double 12 gauge wire it is the equivalent of 9 gauge.

 

My guess is that bi-wired 12 gauge wire will work fine, if it does not fit the worst case would be losing a couple strands of wire to make it fit but I doubt that it would be necessary.

 

The Mogami 2921 wire I am using has about 13 gauge wire which doubled becomes the equivalent of 10 gauge and there seems to be plenty of clearance for more.

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3 hours ago, derrickdj1 said:

No added benefit of anything thicker than 12 g. wire.

 

I completely agree.

 

However bi-wiring increases the physical size of the wire gauge at the connector, it is not quite the same as using the larger gauge wire. So using 12 gauge wire bi-wired is basically still the same as using 12 gauge wire (not 9 gauge). You are still using a 12 gauge wire just separating the Hi/low frequencies.

 

My fronts and center I use Mogami 2921 cable which is 4 strands of 13 gauge so I'm running 13 gauge bi-wired wire, which I feel is plenty for the 15 ft aprox longest run of my front cables.

 

My  surrounds I am running a  larger 12 gauge wire which is not bi-wired and the longest run is aprox 35 ft.

 

I am definitely not in the bigger must be better crowd.

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17 hours ago, Rich_Guy said:

 

I completely agree.

 

However bi-wiring increases the physical size of the wire gauge at the connector, it is not quite the same as using the larger gauge wire. So using 12 gauge wire bi-wired is basically still the same as using 12 gauge wire (not 9 gauge). You are still using a 12 gauge wire just separating the Hi/low frequencies.

 

My fronts and center I use Mogami 2921 cable which is 4 strands of 13 gauge so I'm running 13 gauge bi-wired wire, which I feel is plenty for the 15 ft aprox longest run of my front cables.

 

My  surrounds I am running a  larger 12 gauge wire which is not bi-wired and the longest run is aprox 35 ft.

 

I am definitely not in the bigger must be better crowd.

Biwiring uses the same lugs on the source for 2 pairs of wire....so how is this splitting any kind of signal if the signal is never split from the source?

 

Isnt this basically just reinventing the jumper? The path is exactly the same, full range from the source to the speakers crossover.

 

 

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4 hours ago, Justus said:

Biwiring uses the same lugs on the source for 2 pairs of wire....so how is this splitting any kind of signal if the signal is never split from the source?

 

Isnt this basically just reinventing the jumper? The path is exactly the same, full range from the source to the speakers crossover.

 

Since the draw of the electricity is different at the low and high frequency drivers the current travel is slightly different through each wire when they are separated (bi-wired) rather than using a shared wire.

 

Think of this as a single lake that supplies two rivers going to two different locations, if the demand is higher at one location than the other the river flow will be different even though both rivers start from the same source.

 

Bi-wiring takes advantage of these differences and the result can be a very slight difference in the overall clarity, some people feel this is worth it while others don't. Everyone's hearing and listening is also different and many people will not hear or care about the differences and call it just snake oil making this one of those often hot topics among different people. If you want to bi-wire do it, if you don't then don't.

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15 minutes ago, Rich_Guy said:

 

Since the draw of the electricity is different at the low and high frequency drivers the current travel is slightly different through each wire when they are separated (bi-wired) rather than using a shared wire.

 

Think of this as a single lake that supplies two rivers going to two different locations, if the demand is higher at one location than the other the river flow will be different even though both rivers start from the same source.

 

Bi-wiring takes advantage of these differences and the result can be a very slight difference in the overall clarity, some people feel this is worth it while others don't. Everyone's hearing and listening is also different and many people will not hear or care about the differences and call it just snake oil making this one of those often hot topics among different people. If you want to bi-wire do it, if you don't then don't.

But the source where plugged in is feeding both wires..... then they seperate, and terminate at the speaker right?

 

So how is anything any seperate than using the jumper?

Maybe im totally unaware on how a speaker works, but.... they draw power like a river?

I thought the amp/avr pushed a signal, not the speakers drawing.

 

Turn volume to 20, and the source pushes accordingly right?

Xover does the rest?

 So how does 4 wires per channel when tied into same source provide different power?

 

I get the river idea, but.... i wasnt aware speakers draw.  I thought they got pushed.

 

Im sorry, maybe im missing something..... it sounds funny to me.

 

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Electrical current has a draw of current, this is why a 100w light bulb uses more than a 60w bulb. The electric current travels very much like a river both being pushed and drawn along its course and a variety of things will control this, at the source, the destination and the course along the way.

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