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Tightness of banana plug <> cable (not banana plug <> speaker/amplifier)

I just buy any type - generally there’s a grub screw, remove it and use a nice high wattage iron to make a solder joint through the screw hole. Bob is your fathers brother :) My Linn K4, terminated like this 30 years ago, is still going strong - the bananas themselves are a bit bent and messy after so long, a result of the cable weight, but none have broken yet, and easy to reform occasionally when needed.

must admit I like the z-plugs too though
 
So I did some checks and comparisons - it seems that with some of the plugs, strands of the cable were interfering with the threads of the lower part of the plug, thus creating some wiggle room that resulted loose(r) connections over time.

As for the sound quality, there was not too much between my current QED and the vdH (what a surprise), if anything then the QED actually sounded a bit more precise and dynamic - I am beginning to understand where the nick name 'van den Dull' is coming from.

Anyway, given my (subjective) impression of the sound quality, and the whole banana plug issue, I have decided that I will return/sell the vdH cables and stick with my QEDs.

Perhaps I will try a QED Supremus at some point, just for s**ts and giggles. :)
 
Mr Pig said:
I have some old Audio Research plugs here which are a similar design. Horrible things! Never use them. Pain to fit, only work with certain gauge of wire and there is no way of knowing exactly what has happened in there, are the strands all clamped or have some bent over and you're only gripping a few?

Give me a solder joint every time. You don't look inside an amplifier and see stupidity like this. These things only exist because dealers and customers like them as they don't need to get a soldering iron out.
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Agreed, however, screw-on banana plugs do come in handy, especially so when one has a broad collection of amps and speakers from over many decades, and would rather not stock soldered leads for every possible combination.
 
Always solder if using plugs.

I use either soldered on banana plugs or bare wire through the hole in the binding post then tighten down. Thick wire can be thinned out to make it thin enough to go through the hole without deleterious effect.
 
Arkless Electronics said:
Always solder if using plugs.

I use either soldered on banana plugs or bare wire through the hole in the binding post then tighten down. Thick wire can be thinned out to make it thin enough to go through the hole without deleterious effect.
Click to expand...

Why would soldering be better than cold welding or crimping with a f*** ton of pressure?
 
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